During Saturday’s symposium Population Health, Affordable Care Act (ACA), and New Approaches for Dissemination/Implementation of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), four experts will share real-world lessons learned from DPP implementation across the nation. The two-hour session begins at 4:00 p.m. in room 6DE.

The National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is now a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention- recognized lifestyle-change program. It was adapted from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) randomized clinical trial that showed lifestyle intervention reduces the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. DPP participants meet with a trained lifestyle coach for a year to improve healthy habits, such as exercising more, eating healthier, and reducing stress.

Nina C. Brown-Ashford, MPH, CHES, Deputy Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Prevention and Population Health Group, will open the symposium with lecture titled “Policy Update—Impact of ACA and Medicare on Dissemination and Implementation of the DPP,” which will focus on preventative care policies.

Medicare will start reimbursing providers to deliver the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, or MDPP, to eligible beneficiaries starting on Jan. 1, 2018. This is the first time a prevention model from the CMS Innovation Center was adopted “under the CMS authority to expand successful payment and service delivery models to reach all eligible beneficiaries,” according to a CMS news release.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the expansion of the National Council of Young Men’s Christian Associations of the United States of America’s Health Care Innovation Award for providing DPPs following the successful actuarial certification. CMS Innovation’s 1115A expansion authority under the Affordable Care Act made this expansion possible.

Although the national DPP has proven successful, with its participants reaching the 5 percent and 7 percent weight loss goals, enrollment into the yearlong program remains a challenge.

The Florida Department of Health had diabetes advocate Nicole Johnson, DrPH, MPH, MA, spearhead research to help understand the benefits and barriers associated with the DPP. During today’s session, Dr. Johnson will discuss a social marketing campaign she created to increase the program’s awareness. She will also present the business case document she wrote for community leaders that highlights the DPP’s financial benefits.

“The DPP is challenging,” Dr. Johnson admitted. “The sheer length of it is hard for coaches and program administrators. We’ll talk about all the practical steps needed to make a program work.”

One of the most successful and longstanding DPP programs was created by the Montana Department of Health. Dorothy Gohdes, MD, a former consultant to the program, will share lessons learned from the program during her lecture “‘Tales from the Trenches’—Rolling Out the DPP in Montana, 2008-2017.”

“It really takes a team to do this,” Dr. Gohdes said. “We’re going to discuss the importance of diabetes educators and the state’s crucial role in building and maintaining the program as we expand it.”

The session’s final speaker, Linda Weiss, PhD, Director of the Center for Evaluation and Applied Research at New York Academy of Medicine, will discuss four DPP projects she’s worked on and share key recruitment and retention lessons from each.

The projects—including a DPP implemented at YMCA facilities across the state of New York and a male-focused DPP called Power Up—were implemented in various environments with different target audiences. She will review the challenges and advantages of different types of host sites, as well as the challenges and successes of recruiting male program participants.

Dr. Weiss also will share the results of a study of participants who dropped out of DPP programs. She will discuss their stated reasons for dropping out and their recommendations for program changes that might have helped them continue to engage.

“For example, people want more practical tools—like menus or recipes—handed out during the program,” she said. “Participants also said that if the lifestyle coaches would have done more outreach after missing a class, they would have been more likely to return.”