Collaborative Projects

In 2016, Peers for Progress partnered with the Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital (S6PH) to implement peer support for diabetes within the Shanghai Integration Model (SIM). The SIM is a city-wide initiative that integrates hospital-based specialty care and community health center-based primary care for health promotion, early detection, health management, complication screening, and case management.

The added value of peer support to the Shanghai Integration Model is improved patient engagement in care, advancement toward collaborative care, greater utilization of CHC-based primary care, and stronger integration between primary and specialty care. By building the case for peer support and integrated care in Shanghai, this project hopes to encourage leaders in China to adopt similar approaches for better diabetes care across the country.

The SIM is directed by Professor Weiping Jia, President of the Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, President of the Chinese Diabetes Society, and an international expert on diabetes.

Click here for more information about the Shanghai Integration Model and peer support.

Cities Changing Diabetes is a partnership program launched in 2014 by Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, University College London, and Novo Nordisk, to accelerate the global fight against urban diabetes. Today, the program has established local partnerships in ten cities to address the social factors and cultural determinants that can increase type 2 diabetes vulnerability among certain people living in cities.

Peers for Progress has partnered with Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) to accelerate the adoption of peer support strategies in the global fight against diabetes. Through expert consultation to regional CCD offices, technical assistance to local partners in CCD cities, teleconferences, and digital advocacy, Peers for Progress provides the practical tools needed to implement and improve the quality of peer support programs.

Click here for more information about our collaboration with Cities Changing Diabetes.

The National Peer Support Collaborative Learning Network is a joint initiative by Peers for Progress and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). This collaborative network will focus on developing and sharing evidence of benefits of peer support programs, best practices, effective evaluation methods, models of organizing peer support within health systems as well as effective models of advocacy.

The NPSCLN is supported through the Together on Diabetes Initiative of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.

Click here for more information about the Network.

In 2011, Peers for Progress was awarded and began planning for a comprehensive diabetes management project funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s Together on Diabetes Initiative. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate and evaluate the ability of a comprehensive approach to diabetes management based in a primary care patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and emphasizing peer support and community outreach activities to improve health outcomes of Latinos.

Implementation of the demonstration project will take place at Alivio Medical Center in Chicago, IL, a federally-qualified health center dedicated to providing quality, cost-effective health care to the Latino community. In addition, Peers for Progress, the National Council of La Raza and TransforMED will prepare a large number of relevant resources for nationwide dissemination through their vast channels of networks.

For more information about this collaborative project, please visit the peer support examples page here.

Cities for Life is a diabetes management program emphasizing linkages between primary care and community based resources that was developed in Birmingham, Alabama.  It was initiated by the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation with support from Sanofi US.  A key component of Cities for Life is the use of a patient navigator to work directly with family medicine practices to help create sustainable linkages between existing community resources and people living with diabetes or at risk for diabetes. The AAFP National Research Network is coordinating the overall program development and implementation.  Peers for Progress helped to plan the program, including its community and peer support features.

Cities for Life is designed to be a grassroots program, optimizing the collective strength of Birmingham’s “medical neighborhood,” comprised of family medicine practices, health care and educational opportunities through the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the many community resources that currently facilitate a patient’s efforts toward a healthier life. Key partners include:

• UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Several family medicine practices recruited through the UAB Department of Family and Community Medicine and the National Research Network
• UAB’s Diabetes Research and Training Center’s Community Engagement Core
• UAB HealthSmart, a community based health promotion center
• YMCA of Greater Birmingham

The Cities for Life Steering Committee helped design the patient navigator program as a first step in assisting family medicine practices to help people living with diabetes and at risk for diabetes. Other key steps included increasing awareness for community support through social marketing efforts and reaching out to additional diabetes resources via civic and community groups that were focused on peer support and self-management activities.

During the one year program, patients showed statistically significant reductions in blood glucose levels, increased belief in their ability to self-manage their diabetes and improved perceptions of support, while the community showed statistically significant increases in diabetes awareness.

A toolkit is now available to help other cities replicate the model.