We recognize the time limitations of a busy practice and the intensive input required during the first months of starting new therapies in your patient’s life and on an ongoing basis.

As members of Guidepost, your patients will work with a dedicated diabetes coach who will help them telephonically in-between their visits to you to educate them and help with behaviour change while monitoring their diabetes journey. Our coaches form a virtual part of your practice and together we help your patients implement your care plan. You are always kept abreast of our actions and your patient’s progress via monthly and ad-hoc reports.

We recognize that diabetes is a self-care condition requiring 95% of the work to be done by the patient themselves. Our program aims to empower patients to be well educated, well controlled and motivated, adopting many of the self-care behaviours that are essential to ongoing successful diabetes management. We follow the guidelines of a consensus report from the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes that recommended all people with type 2 diabetes be offered access to ongoing diabetes self management education and support programmes. Participants in Guidepost coaching show an average decrease in HbA1c of over 1.5 percentage points with larger reductions in higher-risk groups such as newly insulinised and post-hospitalisation cohorts.

All clinical protocols and training are developed in collaboration with our Chief Medical Officer, Professor David Segal (MBChB, FACE). Hear from Prof. Segal how coaching impacts the lives of people with diabetes.

We will contact your patient telephonically and welcome them to the program. Your patient will embark on a series of telephonic coaching sessions with a dedicated coach, conducted in a motivational interviewing style to maximize patient understanding and engagement. We get to know each patient in detail, building a clear picture of the problems and barriers they may be experiencing or are likely to experience. We then provide tailored education and guidance specific to the needs of each patient. Coaching sessions are as far as possible delivered in the patient’s mother-tongue and in a manner cognisant of their culture, beliefs and finances.

Ongoing monitoring helps us to timeously identify when the existing regimen might no longer be working and that intensification might be required. We will need your help at these points to consider how to adjust the regimen. To improve real-world outcomes, patients require assistance with adopting, maintaining and persisting with their diabetes treatment. Once you have prescribed the new regimen we will re-intensify education and contact with the patient to re-educate them on the new diet, exercise and hypoglycaemia risk behaviours required to make the new regimen work. This is a huge time commitment and requires regular contact with the patient which Guidepost provides. Appropriate therapy intensification can help patients get to target quicker and proves that diabetes can be managed – a very valuable psychological boost for patients.

Doctors making use of our program consistently report that we save them time, reduce their diabetes management burden and offer a valuable service to their patients.