Joseph Benjamin Crocker, Stephen H Lynch, Anthony J Guarino, Kent Lewandrowski  

J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2021;15(3):561-567 

The objectives of this quality improvement study were to evaluate the impact of HbA1c point-of-care testing (POCT) on onsite HbA1c testing frequency as a component of population health performance, as well as to measure the utility of HbA1c POCT in identifying clinically meaningful change in disease. 

The authors highlight that patients and practices remain challenged in completing timely HbA1c tests, and that POCT for HbA1c provides a quick, easy, reliable method for monitoring diabetes in the primary care setting.  

The study was conducted among adult patients with diabetes due for HbA1c testing across three primary care practices. Onsite HbA1c POCT was implemented, whereby scheduled patients with known diabetes, and eligible for every six-monthly HbA1c monitoring, received POCT. 

The results indicated that practices with HbA1c POCT were 3.7 times more likely to result in HbA1c testing compared to practices where HbA1c POCT was not available. Nearly one in four patients in each group were found to have clinically worsening diabetes and nearly half of those patients were identified by POCT. 

The authors conclude that HbA1c POCT can improve population health driven HbA1c testing adherence in primary care and may encourage timely intervention of diabetes management for patients with worsening disease. 

The full publication can be accessed here. 

COL-12753 08/2022