Best Practice Study of Diabetes Type 2 Management in Primary Care in Switzerland

This observational study intends to evaluate the use and adherence of different types of primary care practices to the diabetes criteria-protocol (diabetes score), developed by the Swiss Society of Endocrinology and Diabetology. This diabetes score comprises visits to the doctor, lifestyle consultations, clinical measures such as blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar, as well as measures concerning the prevention of secondary complications like kidney, eye or feet issues. The participating primary care practices need to treat 80% of their diabetes patients (their "diabetes population") in accordance to the score-criteria. In addition to the adherence to the eight score-criteria, the practices are required to also document statistically if their diabetes patients get the following medication: oral antidiabetics, insulin, blood pressure medication, statins and / flu vaccine. As this observational study is and before-and-after study, the primary care practices need to document for each of their diabetes patients the care they provided in the year before the introduction of the score-criteria and in the year following their introduction. Participating primary care practices ask their diabetes patients' consent to the documentation and anonymous transmittance of their data. Data evaluation is anonymous and on a population-based level (as opposed to individual-based). The hypothesis of the study is to prove that the implementation of evidence-based measures, such as a diabetes score can increase the treatment quality of diabetes patients in primary care practices and this increase is independent of the primary care practice structure in which it is applied.