When it comes to closing gaps and improving outcomes for diabetes care, collaboration is a key element. That is the case Osagie Ebekozien, MD, MPH, CPHQ, will make during Cost and Quality—Improving Diabetes Care and the Cost of Ongoing Inequities.

The symposium will take place on Monday, June 24, from 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. ET in Room W311 of the Orange County Convention Center and be livestreamed on the virtual meeting platform for registered meeting participants. It also will be available on-demand following the 84^th Scientific Sessions.

Dr. Ebekozien is the Chief Medical Officer at T1D Exchange and leads a network of 62 diabetes centers across 22 states. This multistate effort demonstrates how large health systems can progressively move the needle forward in patient outcomes by working collaboratively, according to Dr. Ebekozien.

“There is a need for us to think about how we collaborate together and bring all the research and insights into practice that can make a difference for people living with diabetes,” he said.

He will share data that demonstrates how outcomes are improving for over 80,000 people living with type 1 diabetes through such collaborative work. He will also highlight improvements in complications like severe hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis, as well as how collaboration among providers helps to reduce gaps in technology usage by people with type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Ebekozien’s work embraces a model that’s focused on collaboration, benchmarking, and quality improvement.

“We see that has the power to change the direction and lead to improved outcomes, as opposed to reporting on the issue alone in a purely academic research space,” he said. “We now have data from a very large proportion of people living with diabetes showing that by collaboration, trends can change.”

Translating everyday research findings into clinical care is something Dr. Ebekozien hopes to achieve through these partnerships.

He will also share insights into practices that can help reduce the health disparities for people living with diabetes.

“There is power in operationalizing and testing out changes, and sometimes we have to start small and then amplify that as we go by embracing our collective efforts, our collective knowledge, and our collective interest to transform diabetes care,” Dr. Ebekozien said. “If we take on a mindset like that, we can start to see improvement in outcomes.”

Saria Hassan, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor in General Medicine at Emory School of Medicine, also will address disparities in diabetes prevalence and management.

Jennifer Raymond, MD, MCR, will discuss the role of virtual peer groups in adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes. She is an Associate Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the Clinical Diabetes Director in the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, and the Vice Chair of the Executive Telehealth Committee.