DXY Launches Standardized Out-of-Hospital Diabetes Management Services, Submits Expert Review Application
In recent years, the situation regarding diabetes prevention and control in China has become increasingly severe. With a vast population of over 110 million diagnosed patients and approximately 400 million individuals with prediabetes, disease management for diabetes is gradually evolving into a significant societal issue. As a critical component of the diabetes prevention and control system, diabetes education and management are receiving growing attention; however, a serious imbalance between supply and demand is becoming increasingly evident. Despite nearly a decade of development, during which the Diabetes Education and Management Group of the Chinese Diabetes Society, under the Chinese Medical Association, has continuously promoted the training of professional diabetes educators and the accreditation of diabetes education and management units, achieving certain results, the pace of professionalization and standardization in China’s diabetes education and management sector remains far insufficient to meet the enormous demand.
Led by Professor Guo Xiaohui from the Department of Endocrinology at Peking University First Hospital, a team of authoritative experts in diabetes education and management in China has been advocating for the acceleration of interdisciplinary academic development and the socialization of diabetes education and management. On October 17, 2017, the Diabetes Education and Management Branch of the China Health Promotion and Education Association (hereinafter referred to as the “Branch”) was officially established in Beijing. At the inauguration ceremony, Professor Guo Xiaohui particularly emphasized that “diabetes is a lifestyle-related disease. In the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment, the tiered management and services for diabetes education and management should involve more social institutions beyond medical facilities. However, targeted, rigorous, and orderly evaluation and accreditation must be conducted within the certification and review system for diabetes education and management units, thereby promoting out-of-hospital care through in-hospital initiatives and advancing standardization through accreditation and review.”
As the first institution to formally submit the “Application for Expert Review of Out-of-Hospital Diabetes Management and Services” to the branch, DXY officially underwent the certification assessment by the branch’s expert panel in Hangzhou on December 27, 2017.
The expert delegation visiting Hangzhou for inspection was led by Professor Sun Zilin, Vice Chair of the Branch, Vice Dean of the Medical School of Southeast University, and Director of the Institute of Diabetes at Southeast University. The expert team included Shen Li, Deputy Director of the Nursing Department at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital; Gu Wei, Chief Physician in the Department of Endocrinology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine; Ju Changping, Head Nurse of the Internal Medicine Department at Zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University; Zhang Ning, Head Nurse in the Department of Endocrinology at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital; He Xiaowen, Head Nurse in the Department of Endocrinology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine; and Yuan Hongdi, Diabetes Specialist Nurse at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Also accompanying the team were Gao Lingling, Full-time Secretary of the Branch, and review staff members Sun Haiyan and Liu Jing.
Zhou Shuzhong, Co-Founder of DXY, Introduces the Care Center to Professor Sun Zilin
The panel of review experts first visited the DXY Care Center to conduct a comprehensive audit and evaluation of the processes, standards, and content of its diabetes management services. Li Tiantian, Chairman of DXY; Zhou Shuzhong, Co-founder; Zhang Wei, Vice President; Zhang Jing, Vice President; and representatives from the Care Center introduced the facility to the expert panel and provided a detailed report on the diabetes management services.
Established in 2015, the DXY Care Center has, after nearly three years of rapid development, built a professional team comprising healthcare professionals, dietitians, psychologists, and health education specialists. Leveraging data collection and analysis, multi-party resource integration, and services delivered by professionals, the center provides personalized health management services for patients with diabetes.
The Care Center collects patients' blood glucose data via smart wearable devices, performs structured processing and real-time analysis of the data, and guides its professional team to provide timely, evidence-based, and effective interventions. This helps patients with diabetes establish healthy lifestyles and delay the onset of complications.
Specifically, the diabetes patient health management services offered by DXY Care Center demonstrate the following features:
Precision Smart Devices: Medical-grade accuracy smart blood glucose meter, compliant with ISO 15197:2013 and the latest GB/T standards; embedded with a SIM chip for automatic data recording and transmission.
Professional Team Services: Registered nurses (with five years of clinical nursing experience in tertiary hospitals), physicians (with five years of clinical practice experience in tertiary hospitals), and Level II dietitians (with an average of ten years of professional experience);
Diverse intervention methods: SMS, phone calls, WeChat content push, WeChat Q&A, and face-to-face follow-ups;
Significant management effectiveness: The proportion of abnormal blood glucose levels decreased after management;
Improved Patient Satisfaction: The patient satisfaction rate is 97.6%.
Since its launch over a year ago, the platform has served more than 13,200 patients with diabetes, resulting in a decreased proportion of abnormal blood glucose levels following management.
The DXY Care Center left a deep impression on the panel of review experts with its distinctive features, including data collection and analysis, online-offline integrated patient tracking, and the combination of multiple intervention strategies. At the review site, Professor Sun Zilin pointed out that the Care Center’s management of diabetic patients incorporates numerous innovations, with many exploratory practices worthy of emulation.
In diabetes patient management services, DXY has also joined forces with multiple partners to provide patients with more comprehensive and robust care. Through a tripartite collaboration among DXY, Tencent, and ZhongAn Insurance, Tencent supplies smart glucometers to track patients’ blood glucose monitoring behaviors, enabling real-time assessment of their adherence to monitoring protocols. DXY delivers professional care services, providing timely interventions to help patients manage their blood sugar levels scientifically. ZhongAn Insurance offers rehabilitation incentive insurance and coverage for diabetes-related complications, delivering immediate feedback and positive reinforcement for patients’ blood glucose management efforts.
Dingxiang Yuan, Eli Lilly, and Tencent have collaborated to create a new model of seamless, integrated management that combines high-quality medications, pioneering technologies, and customized services to reduce the disease burden. Statistics show that patients interacted with the care center team 50,000 times through the Youxing Guan’ai WeChat platform, performed a total of 350,000 blood glucose tests, increased the proportion of patients with stable blood glucose by 15%–20%, delayed the onset of complications, and achieved significant savings in overall healthcare costs.
DXY Chairman Li Tiantian Introduces DXY’s Physician and Patient Services
“The essence of healthcare is to create a better life for people, as the healthcare industry pertains to human life and health,” Li Tiantian, Chairman of DXY, told experts. “Over the 17 years since its establishment, DXY has accumulated extensive resources and data on physicians and medical services. As our strategic focus has shifted in recent years toward the general public and patients, we have identified an urgent need for health-related knowledge among the general patient population, including those with diabetes, alongside a severe lack of corresponding services. Therefore, the Care Center is dedicated to providing professional care services to patients.”
The on-site expert panel conducted a workplace inspection of the DXY Care Center. Following document review, on-site assessment, and closed-door evaluation, and in accordance with the six major standards and detailed scoring criteria for the certification of diabetes management units, the panel considered the actual conditions of out-of-hospital diabetes management and service institutions. While affirming the performance of the DXY Care Center, the panel provided written recommendations for improvement, noting that the professional certification of the education management team was not yet fully established, and that the continuity, effectiveness, and evaluability of user tracking within the follow-up management system needed enhancement. The panel agreed to allow DXY to formally enter the re-evaluation process for the 2018 Diabetes Education Management (Development) Unit designation.
It is expected that the DXY Care Center will become China’s first certified out-of-hospital diabetes management service provider after successfully passing the re-evaluation process for Diabetes Education and Management (Construction) Units in 2018. It is reported that the review and certification of out-of-hospital diabetes management service providers is a specialized branch developed by the Branch Association based on the certification and evaluation system for Diabetes Education and Management Units. Its primary objective is to support the scientific and orderly development of standardized out-of-hospital management institutions, thereby enabling patients with diabetes and their families to receive better management and services. DXY’s participation in the preliminary review process will play a significant role in promoting the socialization and standardization of diabetes education and management services.