MN Community Measurement (MNCM) has launched a new Web site, www.theD5.org, devoted entirely to its diabetes measure. The site features clinic-level results for the five treatment goals that, when achieved together, represent the gold standard for managing diabetes. Reaching all five goals greatly reduces a patient's risk for the cardiovascular problems associated with diabetes.

One of the most critical challenges for MNCM is increasing consumer use of health care quality information. MNCM has made recent improvements to its main Web site to better accommodate consumer needs, but recent feedback obtained from consumers has made it clear that the current site’s display of information is not meeting their needs.

Instead of expecting consumers to approach a broad-based Web site that was built for use by both provider and consumer audiences, MNCM decided to pilot the use of a new Web site aimed at a specific consumer audience. The Optimal Diabetes Care composite measure was selected to take advantage of a new direct data submission process that that is being used to improve the timeliness and quality of data reported by MNCM. Based on the success of this initial pilot, MNCM may choose to develop additional micro-sites devoted to other health topics.