Editor’s Note:

This week Steve finishes up his Homerun Slides on the Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment Strategies for Comorbid Diabetes and Dyslipidemia, by showing how Shared Medical Appointments can actually improve care.

SMA’s definitely are the way of the future and this week we continue our report on how you can get them started in your office. We get into the details on how to get staff buy-in, set the date and get the hand-outs to bring in the patients.

Which do you think would affect you more: loss of hearing, vision or smell? According to most surveys, vision is the one no one wants to lose but, says Dr. Paul Chous, most diabetes patients don’t acknowledge the connection between vision and good glucose control until it is way too late. Check out this week’s Diabetes Disaster to see how patients can let things get out of hand.