Letter From The Editor

This week, a new study from Surescripts found that the use of electronic prescribing in 2010 increased by 72% over 2009, climbing to 326 million up from 190 million e-prescriptions in 2009. By the end of 2010, approximately 25% of eligible prescriptions were prescribed electronically, and 91% of all pharmacies …

It is not often that you get someone who wrote the ADA guidelines to share his slides with you, but this week our publisher, Steve Freed, asked his good friend Dr. Aaron I. Vinik, MD, PhD, FCP, MACP, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Strelitz Diabetes Center, to share his slides on …

 I was reading a book on weight loss and muscle gain, and how to maximize both for managing diabetes when I was presented with a study from the University of Wisconsin- Madison on the use of a cell phone camera to lose weight. This “flash diet” requires the person to simply …

Your response to the Managing Clinical Problems in Diabetes case we brought you last week was overwhelming, and with that in mind we continue our series of cases from them. This week we look at a referral from a podiatrist. In last week’s Diabetes in Control newsletter I commented on …

This week obesity is again in the headlines as the Obama administration is planning to ask food companies and restaurants to cut back on advertising unhealthy foods to children. Under guidelines obtained by us from the Associated Press, companies would be urged only to market foods to children ages 2 …

A few weeks ago an endocrinologist that I work with let me look at an article he had cut from a medical journal: the gist of the article was how the use of instant references on handheld devices and tablet computers was hurting the clinical abilities of newer medical practitioners. …

Sometimes when I write the Letter from the Editor I feel like the weatherman on TV. They can see what is happening and they can tell us what is happening but they can’t do a darn thing about it. Last week we headlined a report from the International Liver Conference …

Coffee, donuts and diabetes, oh my! This week there is a new study out that goes against at least 20 studies we have covered in Diabetes in Control in the past year. Caffeine and Carbs Don’t Mix, from the new Journal of Caffeine Research, suggests caffeine disrupts glucose metabolism, possibly …

Last week I was discussing insulin therapy with my interns as we were evaluating insulin choices for a local physician. The consensus was to start on a long acting insulin like glargine and then titrate based on glucose levels with a patient directed protocol. This seemed to be a natural …

This week I was working on a new presentation on diabetes drugs for a program in May and wanted to update the information on the newer medications and how they work. Knowing that over 74% of patients with diabetes also have hyperlipidemia, I have been using Welchol (colesevelam HCl) more …