Improving Continuous Glucose Monitoring Use in Emerging Adults With Type 1 Diabetes

The Achieving Health in Emerging Adults with Diabetes (AHEAD) Program is a collaboration between Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) and the University of Washington Medicine Diabetes Institute (UWMDI). SCH is a tertiary care pediatric hospital that serves the largest geographical region of any children’s hospital in the country, with regional clinics located throughout the state of Washington. UWMDI is a hospital-based specialty clinic serving adults with diabetes in the Pacific Northwest and integrating clinical care, research, and education.

The AHEAD Program is designed to meet the diabetes education, mental health, and health care transition needs of EAs with diabetes. EAs with diabetes (15–23 years of age) can be referred to either an SCH or a UWMDI AHEAD Program clinic site. If an EA initially enrolls in the AHEAD Program at an SCH AHEAD Program clinic, a structured health care transition process is in place to facilitate transfer to the AHEAD Program at UWMDI, with an overall goal for EAs to graduate the program and successfully transfer their diabetes care to a local adult diabetes provider.