COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS OF TEACHING AND CAR E PROGRAMS IN TYPE-2 DIABETES

Structured teaching and treatment programmes for Type-II non insulin d ependent diabetic patients have been proved in several studies to be c ost effective. K. Davidson in Atlanta described the considerable decre ase of health care costs after the introduction of his programme. Rece ntly a similar programme was introduced into the German health care sy stem and physicians in private practice are remunerated for providing the programme. Until now more than 10 000 physicians have participated in postgraduate courses which are the prerequisite to be remunerated. The evaluation of the programme including a cost benefit analysis dem onstrated the financial benefits of the programme even in a short time . The methods of nation-wide multiplication of the programme and its c ontents are summarised in this article. The principles of the treatmen t strategy follows the objectives which have been published already in 1875 by A. Bouchardat : Urine testing, hypocaloric diet and exercise.