Practices that use electronic registries for patient reminders are more likely to complete recommended laboratory testing for their patients with type 2 diabetes, according to research published in the Journal of the Medical Informatics Association.
Researchers analyzed records from 12,514 patients with diabetes from 50 urban practices and conducted a practice assessment survey to determine how primary care providers were using electronic diabetes registries to meet Meaningful Use (MU)-related objectives. Using insurance claims data from 2010, they compared the health outcomes of patients from practices using those registries to the health outcomes of patients of providers who did not.
Use of diabetes registries that meet MU objectives was associated with higher completion rate of recommended tests and lower hospital utilization rates for type 2 diabetes, but use of those registries had no significant impact on the quality of care for patients with type 1 diabetes, according to the study.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.