GSK, WCHQ Partner to Help Improve Care for Patients with Diabetes

Quality measures will help inform the integration of medical and dental care

GSK Consumer Healthcare and the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ) today announced a new partnership aimed at increasing collaboration between oral and medical health providers that will lead to improvements in how patients who have diabetes are managed across dental and medical clinics.

Diabetes and periodontal disease frequently occur together. Communication between dental and medical professionals is necessary to successfully manage patients with diabetes.

GSK Consumer Healthcare, a leader in promoting good oral care, is working with WCHQ, a clinical measurement and performance improvement organization, to develop cross-cutting quality measures that will provide data to inform more closely aligning care processes across both settings.

A person’s overall health can be adversely impacted by poor oral health conditions, particularly gum diseases. The new partnership between GSK Consumer Healthcare and WCHQ will create opportunities for dentists and physicians to collaborate and create cross-cutting metrics that will help inform their efforts to ensure that patients at risk for diabetic complications receive both oral and medical care.

“Our partnership with WCHQ presents a unique opportunity to accelerate the integration of dental and medical care to move us closer to the goal of providing whole-person care in clinical settings,” according to Elizabeth Brewer, GSK Consumer Healthcare, regional lead government affairs Americas.

WCHQ President/CEO Christopher Queram commented:

“We could not be more pleased to partner with GSK Consumer Healthcare in helping WCHQ create the tools necessary to bring oral and medical professionals together to provide better care management for the more than 400,000 people in Wisconsin who have diabetes. We are confident that the results of our collaboration will underscore the critical link between good oral health and physical well-being”