Limit the length of the proposal to 6 pages plus an optional appendix..

Optimal allocation of existing resources for the prevention and control of diabetes in the U.S Develop a proposal for consideration by a government entity

Format and Contents of the Proposal

 Identify the particular problem you will work on. Why is it important?

 Perform a brief stakeholder analysis. What is the scope?

 Identify your objective

 Identify the critical resources.

 Identify the data sources you will use (describe precisely and relate to your proposed model)  Describe the formal solution. Formulate an algebraic and/or spreadsheet solution (perhaps in an appendix)  Conclusion and next steps

Include citations in the body of the text pus a reference section at the end.

Provide a cover page.

Background:

Diabetes is a serious condition that can cause various health problems over time. Fortunately, diabetes can be prevented, or controlled and managed. However, untreated, diabetic patients can develop many complications e.g., heart attack, kidney disease, amputations.

These life threatening complications are both expensive and difficult to treat. On average, the medical expenditure for a diabetes patient is 2.3 times that of a patient with the same age and gender but without diabetes *. In the U.S. alone, the direct medical cost of patients with diabetes in 2012 was $176 billion*. Furthermore, the diagnosed cases of diabetes in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades, while the cost of care for diabetic patients does not show any sign of slowing down. For example, according to the CDC between 1980 and 2011 the percentage of people diagnosed with the disease increased 167%.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to deploy existing medical and educational resources effectively and efficiently, and to develop a cost effective strategy for the expansion of critical resources in the future. The optimal allocation and expansion of these resources should take into account the many risk factors that influence the prevalence of diabetes (age, gender, level of education, ethnicity etc.). For example, CDC reports that in 2011, the prevalence rate for people age 65-75 (21.8%) was more than 13 times that of people younger than 45 (1.6%). As another example, the age-adjusted percentages by race were 9.3% for blacks, 6.5% for Asians, and 5.9% for whites. **

Resources:

There are many governmental and non-governmental resources that can been be deployed to help patients prevent and control diabetes. These include but are not limited to:

 Physicians and nurse practitioners

 Hospitals and ACOs

 Advocacy groups

 Pharmaceutical companies

 Nonprofit/Charity organizations

 Educational and research organizations

Data Sources:

There are many data resources available for this project including but not limitedto the following:

 CDC: Center of Disease Control and Prevention (e.g. prevalence at county level)

 NIH: National Institution of Health (e.g. diabetes studies)

 ADA: American Diabetes Association (e.g. diabetes studies)

 CMS: Center for Medicare and Medicate Services (e.g. Medicare data)

 U.S. Census (e.g. income, age, ethnicity data )

 U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics (e.g. share of out-of-pocket medical expenditures)

 Private data providers (e.g. patient and physician level data)

References

* American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org)

** CDC Center for Disease Control and Prevention