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Contact:

Sharon Grace
Vice President, Public Relations
703.838.0033 ext. 393
sgrace@amga.org

March 22, 2018

AMGA Selects Participants for New Initiative to Improve Heart Health for Adults with Type 2 Diabetes
Together 2 Goal® Innovator Track sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company

Alexandria, VA – AMGA announced today that 10 medical groups and health systems have been selected for a new initiative designed to find innovative ways to improve heart health for patients with type 2 diabetes: the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Cohort of the Together 2 Goal® Innovator Track. This program, led by the AMGA Foundation’s Together 2 Goal® campaign, is sponsored by  Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY).

Participants selected for the Innovator Track’s CVD Cohort include:

The Innovator Track’s CVD Cohort is a national program designed for medical groups and health systems to explore how providers can better identify and manage CVD risk among their patients with type 2 diabetes. During the 12-month initiative, these organizations will collaborate with a clinical advisory committee and AMGA to develop and implement an accompanying framework and metrics.

“As part of our mission to advance high performance health, AMGA wants to understand how providers can improve care to address CVD risk among people with type 2 diabetes in order to share that knowledge with AMGA members and the broader healthcare community,” said John W. Kennedy, M.D., chief medical officer at AMGA and president at AMGA Foundation. “I couldn’t imagine a better group of participants to help us achieve this goal.”

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death associated with diabetes,” said Jean-Michel Boers, president, Human Pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “Along with our partner Lilly, we are proud to support the AMGA Foundation, and other initiatives that help advance care for people with type 2 diabetes who are at an increased risk for heart disease. We are confident that this collaboration will lead to novel strategies to help improve outcomes for people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

Approximately 30 million Americans and an estimated 415 million people worldwide have diabetes. People with diabetes are up to four times more likely to develop CVD than people without the disease. Annual medical expenses for people with diabetes total $245 billion (Source: American Diabetes Association), and costs for CVD are projected to rise to more than $1 trillion by 2035 (Source: American Heart Association).

To address the challenge of type 2 diabetes, AMGA Foundation launched its national Together 2 Goal® campaign in 2016 with a goal of improving care for 1 million people with type 2 diabetes by 2019. Campaign participants report on and aim to improve standard type 2 diabetes measures, including blood sugar control, blood pressure control, lipid management, and testing for kidney disease. With the launch of the Innovator Track, the campaign is expanding its focus to explore other areas of treatment and measurement that could improve outcomes for patients with diabetes.

“The common thread that runs through the groups selected for the Innovator Track’s CVD Cohort is that they are all leaders in improving diabetes care,” said Dr. Kennedy. “We’re grateful that—thanks to the support of Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly—we can work with these groups to develop innovative care management strategies to improve the lives of people with type 2 diabetes and CVD.”

About the Together 2 Goal® Campaign
AMGA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of AMGA, launched Together 2 Goal®, a three-year national campaign to fight the challenge of type 2 diabetes on March 12, 2016. Together 2 Goal® includes more than 150 medical groups, health systems, non-profit partners, and corporate collaborators such as the American Diabetes Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, Novo Nordisk, Inc., Geisinger Health System, Henry Ford Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, and Ochsner Health System. The goal of the three-year campaign is to improve care for 1 million people with type 2 diabetes by 2019. Together2Goal.org

About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector, and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice. amga.org/foundation

About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, high-value care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans. For more information, visit amga.org