Evaluation of the North West London Diabetes Foot Care Transformation Project: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes foot ulceration (DFU) presents an enormous burden to those living with diabetes and to the local health systems and economies. There is an increasing interest in implementing integrated care models to enhance the quality of care for people living with diabetes and related complications and the value of co-production approaches to achieve sustainable change. This paper aims to describe the evaluation methodology for the North West London (NWL) Diabetes Foot Care Transformation project. Description: A mixed methods design including: i) a quasi-experimental quantitative analysis assessing the impact of the implementation of the local secondary care multi-disciplinary diabetes foot team clinics on service utilisation and clinical outcomes (amputations and number of healed patients); ii) a phenomenological, qualitative study to explore patient and staff experience; and iii) a within-trial cost-effectiveness analysis (pre and post 2017) to evaluate the programme cost-effectiveness. Discussion and Conclusion: Demonstrating the impact of multidisciplinary, integrated care models and the value of co-production approaches is important for health providers and commissioners trying to improve health outcome. Evaluation is also needed to identify strategies to overcome barriers which might have reduced the impact of the programme and key elements for improvement.

Keywords

• diabetes foot care
• mixedmethod evaluation
• diabetes
• protocol