California Academy of Family Physicians Foundation

Initiative to improve care of diabetes patients in California

The California Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (CAFPF) undertook a project to improve care of diabetes patients in California and demonstrate practice improvements that would enhance patient care, educate patients and their families and assist disadvantage populations. Funding from The Physicians Foundation supported CAFPF in recruiting practice teams to participate in a virtual collaborative learning experience that blended online learning with face-to-face educational experiences; additional teams of primary care physicians were recruited for participation in collaboratives in underserved counties, utilizing only face-to-face educational experiences. The initiative focused on the small practice environment and sought to identify replicable means to achieve significant improvements in patient care. After successfully developing a curriculum and implementing the collaboratives, CAFPF launched the next phase of the quality improvement collaboratory. The goal of this program is to improve practices’ ability to implement systematic improvements in their office practices. In 2009, The Physicians Foundation awarded a grant of $65,000 to develop and disseminate a “promising practices” white paper to highlight the experiences of high-performing teams participating in the program.