A mid-South chronic disease registry and practice-based research network to address disparities

To describe an innovative health information technology (HIT) model for supporting community-wide health improvement through multiprovider collaboration in a regional population health registry and practice-based research network (PBRN).

Case study.

We describe the HIT data structure and governance of the Diabetes Wellness and Prevention Coalition (DWPC) Registry and PBRN based in Memphis, Tennessee. The population served and their characteristics were assessed for all adult patients with at least 1 encounter in a participating health care delivery system from January 1, 2013, to March 31, 2019. Disparities in access and health care utilization were assessed by residential zip code.

The DWPC Registry is a chronic disease and population health data warehouse designed to facilitate chronic disease surveillance and tracking of processes and outcomes of care in medically underserved areas of the mid-South. The Registry primarily focuses on obesity-associated chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and chronic kidney disease. It combines patient data from 7 regional health systems, which include 6 adult hospitals and more than 50 outpatient practices, covering 462,223 adults with 2,032,425 clinic visits and 602,679 hospitalizations and/or emergency department visits from January 1, 2013, to March 31, 2019. The most prevalent chronic conditions include obesity (37.2%), hypertension (34.4%), overweight (26.4%), hyperlipidemia (18.0%), and type 2 diabetes (14.0%). The Registry provides quarterly practice improvement reports to participating clinics, facilitates surveillance of and outreach to patients with unmet health needs, and supports a pragmatic clinical trial and multiple cohort studies.

Regional registries and PBRNs are powerful tools that can support real-world quality improvement and population health efforts to reduce disparities and improve equity in chronic disease care in medically underserved communities across the United States.