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AACE symposia spotlight transcultural care in diabetes
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The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists is putting a renewed focus on cultural distinctions in diabetes care, and the group explored the topic in three recent symposia to better meet the needs of diverse patients in endocrinology, according to a press release.
The three 1-day symposia, “Diabetes Care Across America – A Series of Transcultural Summits,” gathered experts to discuss what AACE called an “often overlooked” attribute in diabetes care.
“The summits proved to be invaluable to health care professionals who provide diabetes care to diverse, multi-ethnic populations within their communities,” Jeffrey I. Mechanick, MD, FACP, FACN, FACE, ECNU, a past president of AACE and chair of AACE’s Center for Transcultural Endocrinology, said in the release. “It is vitally important for the successful competence of any medical treatment plan to take into account the social and cultural norms of these multi-ethnic populations in order to provide individualized care, particularly to people with diabetes.”
The three conferences, sponsored by Sanofi US, were held in New York, Houston and Miami —cities with high concentrations of multi-ethnic populations. The symposia focused on addressing diversity in health care delivery, including religious beliefs and cultural norms, when caring for patients with diabetes. A white paper summary is forthcoming and will include an analysis on improving health care practices across multi-ethnic cultures, according to the release.
“This is one more example of AACE on the frontlines, working to improve and expand patient care to the nation’s increasingly diverse populations,” Jonathan D. Leffert, MD, FACP, FACE, ECNU, president of AACE, said in the release.
In 2015, AACE hosted the Pan American Scientific Symposium: Clinical Endocrinology in Latin America in San Jose, Costa Rica. The 3-day educational conference convened endocrinologists from throughout South and Central America to develop medical practices that will work best within their cultures. Organizers worked to optimize clinical practice algorithm development for Latin America in diabetes (focusing on glycemic control), obesity (focusing on weight loss), thyroid (focusing on thyroid-nodule diagnostics) and bone (focusing on postmenopausal osteoporosis). Organizers performed analyses of transcultural factors by disease category and developed recommendations according to algorithm “nodes.” The recommendations address screening/aggressive case findings, stratification, diagnostics, intervention, metrics and follow-up intervention by country.