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The official numbers from the CDC are out for 2011 and once again the number of patients with diabetes is up. Last year my PowerPoint slides topped out at 24 million but this year the CDC has upped the number to nearly 26 million Americans. At this pace I will have to use 2 slides just to show the growth of diabetes.
The future is even worse if you consider that now there are over 79 million "prediabetes" patients, an increase of over 22 million in just the past year. With these numbers does anyone understand why over 100 diabetes education programs closed last year and less than 11% of all patients diagnosed even get a single hour of education?
These numbers do show there is a greater need for diabetes care and management and it is time to move past thinking only prescribers can manage patients and let recognized experts like Certified Diabetes Educators take charge of the day to day management of patients and be compensated for it.
If you think referring your patients to a CDE is not important then consider the fact that no other disease has educators. There are no certified hypertension educators, or certified thyroid educators, only Certified Diabetes Educators. And they are there because diabetes is without a doubt the hardest disease to manage.
While we are on the topic of education and motivation our current intern from Mercer University College of Pharmacy, Coleen Hart, PharmD Candidate, has prepared a review of the new book Life of Control: Stories of Living with Diabetes by Alan L. Graber, Anne W. Brown, and Kathleen Wolff.
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Many of you have helped patients avert diabetes disasters and we can all learn from them. (See our Safety and Error Prevention Topic page for a complete list.) If you have a "disaster averted" then send it in and if we use it in our Diabetes Clinical Mastery Series you will receive a Visa Gift Card worth $50.00. Congratulations to our readers who have been sent gift cards for their contributions! Click here to let us know the details. (You can use your name or remain anonymous if you prefer.)
Announcements:
TCOYD Conference and Health Fair, Santa Rosa, California, Feb 12, 2011
The TCOYD team starts their regular conference and health fair schedule this year in Santa Rosa, with Special Guest, Billy Mills, Olympic Gold Medalist. Features and Events include: top physicians, diabetes educators, foot specialists; state-of-the-art technologies and advances in diabetes care; afternoon workshops; and physical activities for everyone.
Please answer this week's poll (in the right-hand column): If a patient is not reaching A1c goals after a treatment change, how long do you wait before recommending changes in lifestyle and or medications?
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We can make a difference!
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Check out this week's "Test Your Diabetes Knowledge" question!
Dave Joffe, Editor-in-chief |
