Cities for Life

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation has launched Cities for Life in Birmingham, Alabama, a community-based diabetes management program anchored in Family Medicine.

With nearly 26 million people living with diabetes in the U.S. and with one in three Alabamians born after 2000 developing diabetes during their lifetime, Cities for Life, supported by Sanofi US, will work with community groups to create an environment that facilitates healthy lifestyles and diabetes management. The AAFP Foundation is guiding this grassroots program because family physicians and other primary care professionals provide most of the care for people living with diabetes, and these professionals seek to develop better strategies for effective management of the disease.

As Alabama has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the U.S. and is also committed to improving the lives of its citizens, the AAFP Foundation is focusing on the Birmingham communities of Southside, Southwest, Homewood, Titusville and West End for this initiative and will partner with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), a world-renowned research university and academic center.

A key component of Cities for Life is the use of a patient navigator to work directly with family medicine practices to help create sustainable linkages between existing community resources and patients with diabetes or at risk for diabetes. The AAFP National Research Network (NRN), the country’s largest practice-based research network, will work closely with key community partners to help develop the patient navigation system and guide patients towards appropriate, accessible resources that facilitate a healthy lifestyle and diabetes management outside the exam room. The project will also receive programmatic guidance from the AAFP Foundation’s Peers for Progress program.

View the Cities for Life press release (3-page PDF file; About PDFs).