The American College of Physicians (ACP) will pilot and test a social cloud-based program designed to improve the outcomes in patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The ACP is collaborating with Pittsburgh-based CECity to evaluate the impact of a technology-based quality improvement program on physician participation, value to practices, rapid-cycle learning and patient outcomes. CECity has developed MedConcert, a social cloud-based performance improvement platform that will be adapted with diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention content.

The one-year pilot program, “Improving the Quality of Diabetes Care,” is expected to help the ACP determine the feasibility of recruiting physician offices to participate in such programs and assess facilitators and barriers, according to Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, head of the ACP's Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality division. “The data also will enable us to assess the ease of adopting this type of technology into the workflows of physician practices and whether it correlates with improved care processes, patient satisfaction and patient outcomes,” Barr said in a release.

Up to 50 internal medicine practices in three states in the pilot will have access to web-based tools, including the ACP diabetes registry based on the 2013 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Diabetes Measure Group and related data elements; patient surveys; and an ACP online community.

Additionally, physicians may access MedConcert’s secure social networks to engage in peer-to-peer clinical communities that enable patient coordination of care and real-time communications for sharing best practices. MedConcert also houses a library of diabetes and CVD resources and educational materials, including patient education tools, linked to specific gaps in performance identified in the registry data, which are also available to participants.

A report on the results of the pilot quality improvement program is expected by the end of the year. The Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health will conduct the program evaluation.