Endocrine Abstracts

Since the end of 2006 in France we have the obligation to evaluate yearly the educational level in diabetic patients treated with pumps. In 2007 we created bimonthly ambulatory group sessions for these patients (six persons per group). After receiving an explanation letter, the patients have to register by calling the service. The aim of the study was to evaluate quality and quantity of the sessions we have been performed.

Methods: We conducted analyses between March 2007 and October 2010. The program of evaluation was conformed to French medical diabetologic recommendations for knowledge in patients treated with pumps. During this period, several members of the team passed an official exam (education to diabetic patients) to improve efficacy of the sessions. For the quantity evaluation we counted the number of patients who attended the session and for the quality evaluation we used satisfaction surveys.

Results: During 43 months we evaluated 179 patients through 40 ambulatory group sessions. For these patients, the pump was first initiated between 2006 and July 2009. Some of them have participated twice or more. The theoretical number of patients should have been about 240 if we consider the number of new patients treated by pump during year 2006 and until the end of 2009. This total amount represents 25% of non-evaluated subjects. We analyzed 173 satisfactory questionnaires. On one hand, 98% of the patients were satisfied from the cordial welcome, 95% appreciated the technique sessions (in particular ‘catheter replacement’) and the talks between each other or the exchanges with the team. On another hand 31% disagreed with the session called ‘check your material’ (new devices for glycemic control, replacement insulin pens) and 16% did not like the session called ‘real life clinical situations’.

Conclusion: We need to increase the number of the patient’s registration to this educative program and we need to improve the methods for practical session, although we previously demonstrated the feasibility of this specific ambulatory training for the evaluation of patients treated with pumps. We have to create a tool to evaluate the number of ‘lost of follow-up’, patients who never call the service to register.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.