Evaluation of Quality Improvement for People with Diabetes (EQUIPD)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  An evaluation of quality improvement collaboratives aligned to a national audit to improve the uptake of insulin pumps for people with diabetes

• IRAS ID

  316162

• Contact name

  Michael Sykes

• Contact email

  michael.sykes@northumbria.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Northumbria at Newcastle

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 9 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Why do we want to do this study?
  People with diabetes who have raised blood sugar level are at increased risk of complications such as sight loss, kidney disease and nerve damage. National guidelines recommend insulin pumps for people with type 1 diabetes people who have high blood sugar. 90,000 people in England have high blood sugar but do not use an insulin pump. People with diabetes, healthcare professionals and NHS England have all said that increasing insulin pump use is important.
  The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) measures how many people with diabetes receive guideline-recommended care. We think that we can increase insulin pump use by supporting specialist diabetes teams (doctors, nurses and others) to use NDA feedback more effectively. We have developed and tried a programme of workshops, coaching and sessions where teams learn from each other. The programme will be delivered virtually by the NDA and will be free to the teams.
  We will:
  • evaluate whether the support leads to greater change than feedback alone
  • understand how the support is delivered and how teams respond
  • evaluate whether the support is value for money

  Who will be eligible and what will the study involve?
  All diabetes teams will be offered the 15-month support programme. Participating teams will be randomly assigned to get the support from January 2023 or from July 2024. We will measure how many people start and stay on the pumps for three months using data is routinely extracted from medical records unless patients opt out. We will observe what happens during the programme and read documents that are produced. We will describe the cost of delivering and receiving the support and evaluate whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
  Our findings will help the NDA, and others, decide how to support teams to improve.

• REC name

  London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  22/LO/0577

• Date of REC Opinion

  14 Oct 2022

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion