Health Care Providers

Health care providers play a crucial role in helping their patients prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and manage all types of diabetes. The following resources can support your efforts to screen, test, and refer people to type 2 diabetes prevention and diabetes management programs and services.

Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes

About 1 in 3 American adults have prediabetes, placing them at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. More than 8 in 10 of them don’t know they have prediabetes. Health care providers are often the first line in screening and referring patients to a type 2 diabetes prevention program. You can refer your patients with prediabetes to the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP), a CDC-recognized lifestyle change program that is proven by research to cut the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than half. This yearlong program, delivered by a trained lifestyle coach, will teach your patients how to eat healthy, increase physical activity, manage stress, and stay motivated. They can also lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke and improve their overall health.

Learn more about how health care providers and pharmacists can refer their patients to the National DPP lifestyle change program. Already implementing a program? Find resources and support on the National DPP Customer Service Center.

How You can Help your Patients. Test your at-risk patients for prediabetes. Refer your patients to a CDC-approved lifestyle change program
Diabetes Education Helps You and Your Patients

DSMES improves your patients’ diabetes management skills and health outcomes. But less than 7% participate within the first year of diagnosis. Health care providers like you are the best way to increase access to DSMES.

Diabetes Management

Diabetes Standards of Care

Health care providers can stay up-to-date on the latest Standards of Diabetes Care to ensure their patients are receiving timely, equitable, and high-quality care. These guidelines include screenings and management for diabetes and related comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.

Team Care

Your patients manage their diabetes care with regular guidance and support from their health care team. At every health care visit, you and other care team members can encourage them to take their medicines and get regular care for their eyes, ears, feet, and teeth.

The 5 Actions for Health Care Teams series offers action steps and key messages for all providers:

As a health care provider, you know firsthand that these actions are key to preventing complications and enhancing quality of life for people with diabetes. Living successfully with diabetes means developing the skills to self-manage outside of the clinical setting. Diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) helps people learn practical skills and personalized strategies to manage diabetes in their everyday lives. DSMES provides structured support so people with diabetes can make sustainable lifestyle changes with the help of a diabetes care and education specialist. People who participate in DSMES are more likely to have better health outcomes, including lower A1C levels and fewer complications.

Additional Resources

  • The DSMES Toolkit is a comprehensive collection of tools and guides for promoting, implementing, and supporting DSMES.