Dr Manel Mata-Cases is a Family and Community Medicine specialist. He worked as a general practitioner in “La Mina” Primary Health Care Centre; Barcelona (Spain) since 1984 until his retirement in 2022.

Dr Mata was one of the founders of the GEDAPS (“Primary Care Diabetes Study Group”) in 1992 of which He was chairman from 2009 to 2013. Since 1993, He has participated in several guidelines and consensus documents on the management and treatment of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Spain. He is one of the authors of the Spanish “2014, 2017 and 2020 RedGDPS algorithm for the Management of T2DM in Primary Care”, the “2012 Institut Català de la Salut T2DM Guidelines” the 2013 and 2017 “Catalonian Public Health Service Harmonization of T2DM Guidelines”, the 2018 Spanish Diabetes Society T2DM Guidelines, and the 2021 and 2022 PCDE Position Statement on the pharmacological management of Type 2 Diabetes in Primary Care.

He is member of the Primary Care Research Group on Diabetes (DAP_cat group) of the University Institute for Primary Health Care Research Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol) Foundation, and the Centre of Investigation of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM), Barcelona, Spain.

His main areas of research are epidemiology, pharmacological treatment, therapeutic inertia, health costs, and trends in the T2DM quality of care, through analysis of the SIDIAP population database in Catalonia (Spain).

He has written more than one hundred original articles on diabetes in international peer reviewed journals, has been reviewer of manuscripts for several scientific journals, and lectures widely on type 2 diabetes related topics, mainly in terms of its pharmacological treatment, therapeutic inertia, and costs.

Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) affects 13.8% of adults in Spain). To try to reduce mortality and minimize the impact of the complications of the disease), it is necessary the involvement of professionals and the participation of the patient to achieve and maintain an adequate control of glycemia and other cardiovascular risk factors. Likewise, professionals and the entire health system should provide a good quality clinical management covering the entire population.

In 1993, the GEDAPS (Group for the Study of Diabetes in Primary Care) Continuous Quality Improvement of care for type 2 diabetes program in Catalonia began and promoted periodic evaluations. The GEDAPS group has developed guidelines with clinical and organizational recommendations and has driven continuous educational activities aimed to improve the quality of care. Since the first evaluation in 1993 a gradual improvement in most of the indicators was observed, not only the process of care but also the intermediate results (glycemic control, blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels) and final outcomes, with reductions in the prevalence of some complications such as retinopathy, ulcers, and amputations.

The last GEDAPS evaluation was conducted in 2007. Subsequently, the DAP_CAT group (Diabetes Research Group in Primary Care_Catalunya) has analyzed the data recorded in the data base SIDIAP (Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Care) including all the population cared for by the Institut Català de la Salut. Comparing data from 2007 to 2018 has shown a significant increase in the prevalence of registered diabetes and a gradual improvement in the control of blood pressure and blood cholesterol, remaining unchanging the glycemic control although antidiabetic treatment has been gradually intensified. This presentation analyzes and compares the available data from the major publications of the two initiatives.