University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Practical and Proven

One of the unique qualities of Connection to Health (CTH) is its robust research. In addition, CTH was developed and tested over 10 years with funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Key findings include:

Patients like using Connection to Health
Primary care practices can work Connection to Health into their workflow and feel that it helps them to provide better care for their patients with diabetes
Patients who completed a Connection to Health patient survey and action plan saw significant improvements in their hemoglobin A1c levels.

Highlighted in Publications

Here are the highlights from several of our Connection to Health publications:

A Cluster Randomized Trial Comparing Strategies for Translating Self-Management Support into Primary Care Practices (J Am Board Fam Med 2019;32:341-352)

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This paper reports on the key components of Connection to Health and the main outcomes of this study. The most significant results of the Connection to Health study showed:

Patients in the practices that utilized CTH and practice facilitation showed significant improved hemoglobin A1c trajectories over time compared with patients who were in practices that did not utilize CTH.
Use of CTH can increase primary care practice’s self-management support activities.

Self-Management Support for Chronic Disease in Primary Care: Frequency of Patient Self-Management Problems and Patient Reported Priorities, and Alignment with Ultimate Behavior Goal Selection (BMC Family Practice 2019;20:120)

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This paper reports on the patient-reported data generated from Connection to Health, to identify the frequency of patients’ reported self-management problem and their self-management priorities; and examine the degree of alignment between patient priorities and the ultimate patient-healthcare team member selected behavioral goal. Key findings from this paper include:

The most frequent self-management support problems patients reported included body mass index, aspects of diet, and physical activity.
Patient-healthcare team member goal selection aligned well with patient self-management priorities when patients prioritized weight loss or physical activity, but not other self-management areas.

A Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Trial Comparing Strategies for Translating Self-Management Support into Primary Care Practices (BMC Family Practice (2018) 19:126)

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Recruiting Primary Care Practices for Research: Reflections and Reminders (J Am Board Fam Med 2018;31:947-951)

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Practice Characteristics Associated with Better Implementation of Patient Self-Management Support (J Am Board Fam Med 2019;32:329-340).

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