MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS HOSPITALIZED IN INTERNAL MEDICINE UNITS (MINDER Study)

This is a national multicenter study that involves 54 Internal Medicine Units throughout Italy. It is designed as a replicate of two cross-sectional surveys interspersed with an educational program. The study is composed by three steps. Phase 1 concerns a retrospective data collection pertaining to patients with known diagnosis of T2DM. In phase 2 an educational training (focused on current Diabetes Guidelines recommendations and based on possible deviations from the best clinical practice observed during phase1) will be conducted in 36 randomized centres out of the 54 ones enrolled (cluster randomization). The ratio 2:1 has been selected in order to offer to the majority of Centres the opportunity to undergo a program of training and maximize the potential positive effect of the educational program on patient management. Randomization will be performed at the beginning of the study. Centres will be selected according to their ability to prescribe all classes of antidiabetic drugs. Phase 3 will occur around 6 months after the training and concerns a new data collection mirroring the previous one. In the phase 1, as well as in the phase 3, the data collection will be based on the review of the medical records of the last 40 consecutive patients with T2DM hospitalized in each Centre of Internal Medicine (in total, 80 patients for each Centre). After a period of 6 months from the hospitalization, a phone call follow up will be performed to know the clinical status of the patient enrolled, if he/she has been re-hospitalized after the index admission and current diabetes treatment.