Academic Detailing in the New Era of Diabetes Medication Management

Educating clinicians on how to improve the medical management of type 2 diabetes in the modern pharmacologic era represents an enormous challenge given the number of medications available and the diversity across guideline recommendations. Academic detailing uses active social marketing techniques to deliver in-office, face-to-face educational encounters between a trained clinical educator (academic detailer) and a primary care clinician and can improve the quality of prescribing and management decisions, leading to better patient outcomes.

This updated review provides context on how academic detailing programs can improve diabetes-related clinical knowledge and practice among primary care providers, incorporating the perspective of a field-based academic detailer. It also profiles 4 diabetes-specific academic detailing programs varying in geographic scope and detailing approach, based in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Saskatchewan Province (Canada). Academic detailing can effectively overcome challenges to increasing the evidence-based use of newer glucose-lowering medications in primary care settings.