PPOD

Pharmacy, Podiatry, Optometry, and Dentistry

PPOD is a program from the National Diabetes Education Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), designed to engage providers from each of these disciplines to work together in actively identifying and treating patients with diabetes through a team-based care approach. By using this approach, providers can significantly reduce patients' risk of developing complications associated with diabetes, like blindness, lower extremity ulcers and amputation, gum disease, tooth loss, heart disease, and adverse reactions from drug interactions or poor drug therapy management.

Working Together to Manage Diabetes

Providers of Pharmacy, Podiatry, Optometry, and Dentistry (PPOD) are well-positioned to advise and educate patients on diabetes control and prevention. The PPOD Toolkit shows PPOD practitioners how to work collaboratively with peers and other members of the health care team, such as primary health care providers, physician assistants, nurse educators, and community health workers, to improve outcomes for people living with diabetes.

Making the Case

In 2016, there were more than 552,000 Alabamians living with diabetes, more than 14% of the population, and thousands more have pre-diabetes. Compounding the issue of high rates of diabetes in the state is that in counties where diabetes prevalence is the highest, we also find high rates of poverty and fewer providers per capita, leaving residents with the choice to drive a long distance to see a provider or not seek treatment at all.

How Does it Work?

PPOD is designed to give providers the opportunity to better treat patients living with diabetes by:

• Educating people living with diabetes about the disease,
• Encouraging patients to attend a diabetes self-management education program,
• Supporting patients' efforts to practice self-management, set goals, and encourage behavior change to achieve their goals,
• Providing appropriate treatment, and
• Directing their patients to other health care professionals for treatment of conditions they do not typically treat.

From the Providers

Introduction to PPOD, Scott Harris, M.D., Acting State Health Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health

The following videos feature the perspectives of PPOD providers themselves, offering insight into what each looks for when treating patients living with diabetes.

• PPOD Through the Eyes of Our Partners, Kristi Kelly, PharmD, Emily Vance, PharmD, and Robert Russell, DPM
• Medicines Matter: The Pharmacists' Perspective, Kristi Kelly, PharmD, FCCP, BPBS, CDE, BC-ADM, and Emily Green Vance, PharmD, BCCCP
• Healthy Feet Matter: A Podiatrist's Perspective, Robert Russell, DPM
• Healthy Eyes Matter: An Optometrist's Perspective, Shilpa Register, OD, MS, PhD
• Healthy Mouths Matter: A Dentist's Perspective, Marc Vance, DMD

Additional Resources

• CDC's Vision Health Initiative
• Tracking Vision and Eye Health Data and Maps
• National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
• Prevent Blindness