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New AADE president outlines ambitious 2018 agenda
The incoming president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators is challenging members this year to be both a voice and advocate for patients with diabetes, speaking out on important health care issues and listening to what patients need and want as the health care system rapidly changes.
“With all the changes in the health care environment, there are a lot of different opportunities for providers of diabetes education,” Donna Ryan, RN, RD, MPH, CDE, FAADE, who was officially recognized by the AADE board of directors as 2018 president in January, told Endocrine Today. “The diabetes educator’s role is really important — to balance what the person with diabetes needs, and speak out for them about their access to care, the cost of medications, and integrating all the technology they need into their lives, because they live with diabetes 24/7. It’s speaking up about their ability to access and effectively use the resources out there for them in a way that helps them improve their lives, rather than what we might think is important. Improving your HbA1c is wonderful, but if the patient cannot afford the medication or can’t utilize the devices available, their bigger goal might be completely different. Our job is to make sure they are heard.”
To do that, Ryan said AADE has several big picture goals for 2018, including a continued focus on technology, an effort to reach people in underserved communities, and initiatives that can help support people with diabetes in new ways.
The organization is now in the third year of its strategic plan implementation, which calls for a focus on technology, including efforts to better integrate technology into practice for patients and diabetes educators, she said.
“We feel we are uniquely positioned to coordinate that interface of technology between the provider and the patient, with the diabetes educator helping in that relationship, and the patient-to-educator relationship,” Ryan said in an interview. “We do a lot of instruction, troubleshooting, following up and supporting. In 2017, for the first time, our curriculum was licensed to be part of a digital health platform, which is exciting, because that really is the future of patient engagement and health education.”
This month, AADE launched the Diabetes Advanced Network Access platform, or DANA app review, to provide AADE members with the ability to explore a variety of diabetes and wellness apps and easily recommend them to their patients. The app review is designed to assess the various available diabetes apps for quality- and evidence-based recommendations, she said.
“This is a one-stop platform where you can go and find information on any of the current apps for diabetes devices,” Ryan said. “We’re really excited about it. We think it’s going to greatly ease the problem of finding information.”
This year’s AADE annual meeting in August, taking place in Baltimore, will also focus on technology, including learning tracks on technology and a special panel featuring representatives of the diabetes community discussing the impact of technology on patients, she said.
The organization is also undergoing a strategic branding review, Ryan said, as part of a broader effort to see how AADE members can best help patients with diabetes during the next decade.
“We’re embarking on a process of visioning,” she said. “We want to be proactive in the process rather than reactive, and the process that we’re using is based on research from our members and stakeholders and people with diabetes. We will be putting all of that input together, and the board of directors will be defining a vision that we’ll be discussing later in the year.”
AADE is also working with the CDC, Ryan said, as part of an effort to reduce the prevalence of diabetes, particularly in underserved populations, and will be putting a special emphasis on peer support networks in 2018.
“Patients spend such a small percentage of their time with clinicians,” she said. “There are peer support communities out there, and at AADE, we’re building successful and meaningful relationships with the key stakeholders in that area, so we can bring forward the importance of peer and community support.
“People with diabetes don’t always have their clinicians, their nurse, their diabetes educator with them when they are making these decisions,” Ryan said. “We have a task force to address this, and we will have a large focus on peer support at our annual conference. We’re looking forward to bringing this community to the forefront.” – by Regina Schaffer