Evaluating the effectiveness and burden of diabetes care in a complex humanitarian emergency setting in Mweso, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 2015

Abstract

Executive summary Background: Since 2008 Médecins Sans Frontières-Operational Centre Amsterdam (MSF-OCA) has been working in Mweso health zone, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In collaboration with the local Ministry of Health (MoH), MSF-OCA supports the Hospital in Mweso and 4 out of 23 Primary Health Care clinics. Mweso Hospital routinely treats diabetic patients presenting with acute complications and in need of treatment (insulin and/or oral treatment). Since 2011, this has been extended to the out-patient clinic, but without clinical guidance or standard operating procedures (SOP), nor specifically trained staff. The Mweso project reports increasing numbers of patients with diabetes and diabetes-related complications, and requested from MSF-OCA to implement a formal diabetes service to improve quality of care for Diabetics. Rationale: A new model of diabetes care was implemented by MSF-OCA in Mweso in March 2015. The model (Integrated Diabetic Clinic within an Outpatient Department (IDC-OPD)) is based on simplified context-adapted clinical guidelines, clinical SOPs, adapted patient counselling & support materials, medications from World Health Organization(WHO) Essential Medicines list, and one-off staff training by a Diabetologist. This represents an opportunity to evaluate and refine this model of diabetes care to support its application in comparable settings. Furthermore there is an opportunity to benchmark diabetes burden in the MSF Catchment area and measure its diabetes care coverage in the area. Overall aim: To evaluate IDC-OPD in Mweso health zone, North Kivu, DRC. The specific objectives are to examine: • The reach (coverage) of the diabetes service to the intended target population. • The effectiveness of IDC-OPD in improving diabetes outcomes (fasting blood glucose and complications) • Adoption / acceptance of IDC-OPD by staff and patients • Implementation of IDC-OPD in terms of consistency/fidelity, adaptation and costs • Maintenance of IDC-OPD in patients and programme over time.