Dr. Robin Pendley, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Management and Policy has co-authored a paper titled "Diabetes Education: Quality Improvement Interventions through Health Departments." The paper was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Along with her co-authors from the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Health, Dr. Pendley studied six local health departments, conducting pre- and post-assessments of multiple indicators of diabetes services, including diabetes self-management education (DSME). These six health departments served approximately one quarter of all of the citizens of Kentucky.
The authors found that adoption of organizational Quality Improvement (QI) strategies led to improvements in the outreach and delivery of services to diabetic patients. For example, the number of patients completing a full DSME training program increased by 100%. The authors conclude that QI initiatives in public health have the potential of impacting the delivery of services for other health conditions that are common among LHD populations.
Dr. Pendley focuses her research on public health systems and services and on the public health workforce. She received her DrPH degree from the University of Kentucky and her MPH from East Carolina University.
