From Books to Professional Education, Joslin Diabetes Center Offers Tools To Help Healthcare Professionals Manage Diabetes Patients

BOSTON — April 12, 2002 — A brand new book to help primary care health providers better manage their diabetes patients, Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses that reach 30,000 health practitioners from coast-to-coast each year, and a comprehensive Disease Management Program are among the wide range of tools that Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston offers to help health professionals improve care for their diabetes patients.

Representatives of Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston were on hand to discuss these services at the 14th Annual National Managed Health Care Congress in Baltimore, MD from April 15, through April 18, at the Baltimore Convention Center.

An estimated 17 million Americans have diabetes; about one-third do not even know they have the disease. An additional estimated 16 million Americans have pre-diabetes, or elevated blood glucose levels that put them at high risk for developing full-blown type 2 diabetes. Frequent complications of diabetes include heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage.

Among the programs offered by Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston that can help health professionals who treat diabetes patients are:

• Joslin's Diabetes Deskbook - A Guide for Primary Care Providers, the definitive book on diabetes care for primary care professionals, is one of many publications and educational materials produced by Joslin. The book is written and edited by recognized diabetes specialist, author, lecturer and Harvard Medical School faculty member Richard S. Beaser, MD, and the renowned Joslin staff. The goal of Joslin's Diabetes Deskbook is to give the primary care provider the necessary background information about the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications, as well as the most up-to-date approaches to management and treatment of these patients. While written for health professionals, informed consumers who already have a good understanding of diabetes and want to advance their knowledge may find the book of interest.
  
  "Primary care providers remain not only the first line of defense, but the major line of defense for the large majority of patients with diabetes," Dr. Beaser said. "Most individuals with diabetes do not have access to highly specialized referral centers. Furthermore, since diabetes is a systemic disease and associated with many other common disorders, the challenge is often placed with the primary care professionals to integrate the care of these complex patients."
  
  Among the many topics in the 609-page book are: diagnosis; oral medications and their use; designing insulin treatment programs, including programs involving intensive physiologic insulin replacement by injections and insulin pump therapy; the role of medical nutritional therapy and exercise; risk reduction and treatment of microvascular and macrovascular complications; dealing with gender-specific issues; and educating diabetes patients so they can participate in the management of their condition. There are individual chapters that discuss neuropathy, foot care, surgical management, pregnancy, treatment of children with diabetes, diabetes in the older adult and psychological issues faced by those with diabetes. The book also includes a 35-page Medication Summaries; guides for specific insulin regimens; guidelines for insulin adjustment; insulin adjustment guidelines for exercise; checklist for initiation, design and revision of a diabetes self-monitoring program; patient nutrition assessment; checklist for diabetes medical history/physical exam/laboratory assessment; checklist for the evaluation of women with diabetes who wish to become pregnant; intensive insulin therapy algorithm; and Joslin's Clinical Guidelines for Adults with Diabetes. The book may be purchased from Joslin Diabetes Center at 1 (800) 344-4501 or from Joslin's Online Store https://store.joslin.org/.
  
  
• A rapidly expanding Continuing Medical Education (CME) program which includes online patient and physician education classes and in-person continuing medical education for physicians and other health professionals. Headed by recognized diabetes specialist, author, lecturer and Harvard Medical School faculty member Richard S. Beaser, MD, last year over 30,000 physicians and other health professionals attended 160 programs from coast-to-coast.
  
  Physicians and other health professionals now have access to Joslin's professional education programs through the Center's new Professional Education Online Services. The new services now enable health professionals to take an online course via the Internet on important diabetes topics right at their desktop, anytime day or night, and to register online for Joslin's live courses that are offered nationwide for continuing medical education (CME) credit. The ability to deliver online classes for patients with diabetes also is being developed, providing patients with the opportunity to learn more about their condition interactively and then test their diabetes knowledge at the end of each course.
  
  
• A comprehensive diabetes Disease Management Program, that includes a Web-based, diabetes-specific patient information system that stratifies patients into risk categories, tracks outcomes and stimulates physicians to improve care. Long before research studies proved Joslin clinicians correct, Joslin clinicians were urging patients to keep their blood glucose as close to normal as possible and were providing patients with the programs and educational materials to achieve good control.
  
  Joslin's Disease Management Program, initially developed for use with a Massachusetts-based managed care organization, has: reduced average per patient costs by 20 percent; reduced overall yearly costs for diabetes patients in the program to half the national average; led to the development of Joslin's Risk Stratification System that enables health providers to identify patients at various level of risk for developing complications; and led to the development of programs to decrease the likelihood of complications for patients at each level of risk.
  
  "The new services combine Joslin's century-old tradition of excellence in diabetes treatment, research and education with modern Web-based technology and in-person education and educational publications to bring the latest in diabetes management to health professionals, medical institutions and to patients. Our Web-based disease management tool creates a patient information system that triggers health providers to track the patient's progress," said James Rosenzweig, MD, head of Joslin's Disease Management Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Unlike many other tools that are based on billing data, this tool focuses on actual patient medical information, and stratifies patients on the basis of that medical data. Physicians are then cued by the system to focus on those interventions that can most benefit the patient."