Letter from the Editor #513

Thanks to all of you who stopped and visited with us at our booth at the APhA annual meeting in Washington last week. Many of you were very focused on learning more about diabetes care and how you could work with other clinicians to help manage patients. As I wandered around the Residency Showcase and Poster presentation area, it was easy to see how the practice of pharmacy has evolved over the past 20 years. The new graduates are much more clinically inclined and from what I could see, hospitals, group practices, universities, and managed care organizations have begun to realize the complexity of drug regimens for our patients with diabetes and comorbidities and are taking advantage of PharmD’s to manage drug therapy.

If you like, you can take advantage of this in your daily practice. There are many PharmD’s working in retail pharmacies today. These pharmacists have the skills and knowledge to help you manage drug therapy. Pick up the phone and call a local pharmacy and see if the pharmacist would like to serve as your drug expert, the person you call on for help with medications, interactions and side effects, or if you like you can download this simple fax, Request for Clinical Pharmacist Support, and send it to them.

During the conference I had the opportunity to deliver a program to over 300 pharmacists on the use of GLP-1 agonists. There were a lot of questions about the therapy from pharmacists and many of them wanted to hear how they could get more involved in diabetes care and increase their knowledge base. I directed them to DM Educate^TM   the CE program from the University of Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy. I have been so impressed with this program that I am now having my entire group of interns take the course.

Over the past few weeks I have been taking a closer look at Type 2 male insulin patients that are having new problems with controlling their glucose levels. Most of these patients have had good control for a considerable time but are now having problems. After a couple of them bragged of weight loss (unexplained) I wondered what was going on and decided to check their testosterone levels. Most of them were either low normal or below normal, so we started them on testosterone therapy and over time their glucose problems have improved. Now there is a new study from the meeting of the British Endocrine Society that puts some science behind this theory. Click here to learn why you may want to focus on testosterone levels in your patients.

 

Announcements:

Taking Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD): San Diego, California, March 24
The TCOYD team will be in San Diego, California, at the UCSD Preuss School in La Jolla, for a TCOYD Mini Series Event on Wednesday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m. The evening’s topic will be, “Medicine in the Era of Genomics:  deeper understanding into diabetes.” TCOYD is a not for profit organization dedicated to informing and empowering people with diabetes to become actively involved in their own health care. For more 2010 upcoming conference details, please go to TCOYD.org.

dLife.com: March 21, 7PM ET on CNBC
Topics: Why depression often strikes people with diabetes hard, and what you can do about it.  Plus, a conversation with sportswriter Michael Wilbon, and mouthwatering low-carb appetizers with Chef Michel Nischan in the dLife Kitchen. Make the most of your dLife and don’t miss an episode: Sundays on CNBC at 7 PM ET, 6 PM CT, and 4 PM PT. Catch up on dLife.com.

Please answer this week’s Poll question:

How often do you use the downloadable software from Glucose Monitors to help manage your patients’ diabetes?

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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