Five Detroit-area communities will get a total of $16.2 million in federal grants to improve diabetic care, the Detroit Free Press reports. "Hospital systems in Detroit, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Hamtramck and Highland Park -- as well as doctor networks and federally funded clinics in the region will use the three-year grant to create an electronic network that gives them access to medical information about diabetic patients and to better coordinate their care." The top federal health IT official, David Blumenthal, said, "information is the lifeblood of medicine." The hospitals will use the network to follow up on diabetic patients after ER visits, among other things. Currently, when diabetics receive care at ERs, providers at other hospitals are unable to access that information (Anstett, 9/3). The Detroit News adds, "Metro Detroit is one of 17 communities across the country to receive $265 million in federal funding for the health care initiative. The region's award was one of two announced Thursday; the other, $13.8 million, went to greater Cincinnati, Ohio." Also, "[s]ome 93,000 people in those areas have diabetes -- a disease that leads to many hospitalizations a year, the collaborative said. Diabetes occurred in 23 percent of Detroit hospital discharges in 2009, according to hospital data" (Burden, 9/3).

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