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PCON to sponsor SECO course on diabetes
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At the upcoming SECO meeting in Atlanta, Primary Care Optometry News will sponsor a 3-hour course focused on helping optometrists comanage patients with diabetes.
Co-presenters David Shein, MD, and Joan Hill, RD, CDE, LDN, will provide a primer on diabetes, starting with its epidemiology, prevalence and incidence; associated factors, such as obesity and a sedentary lifestyle; and screening methods.
“Today, one of the key factors in the successful management of patients with diabetes is to look beyond glucose levels,” Shein told PCON. “While control of diabetes is important, health care providers also need to consider the impact of other risk factors – from medical conditions to lifestyle – on the long-term health of our patients.”
Joan Hill
The team will review the various types of diabetes – type 1, type 2 and gestational – and stress the role of early diagnosis and treatment.
Nonocular complications of diabetes include macrovascular and microvascular disease. Macrovascular disease includes: cardiac disease, peripheral vascular disease and stroke; microvascular disease includes nephropathy and neuropathy, according to Shein and Hill.
LDL and HDL cholesterol as well as triglycerides have an important role in diabetes, according to the presenters. Hypertension and atherosclerosis are additional comorbidities.
Patients often self-test to monitor their own diabetes, but urine and lab tests are also conducted in the health care setting.
Shein and Hill will cover the various types of treatment for this condition, including insulin, oral therapies and injected noninsulin therapies as well as lifestyle interventions.
The presenters will ensure attendees understand the challenges patients have managing their diabetes when they are outside clinical settings, such as at home or work.
David Shein
Participants in the course will learn from Shein and Hill when it is appropriate to refer a patient with diabetes for comanagement and to whom.
Shein is an internist and primary care physician at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He is assistant medical director at Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association in Brighton, Mass. Shein is also an instructor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and an adjunct assistant professor at New England College of Optometry, Boston.
Hill owns Hill Nutrition Consulting, LLC, based in Natick, Mass. She is a Registered Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator and health coach for the Diabetes Prevention Program of the Centers for Disease Control and MIT Medical Services.
“Everything You Wanted to Know About Diabetes” will be held March 1, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in Room A314 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. See the April issue for full coverage of the session. To register to attend, go to www.pconsmeetings.com/SECO. – Nancy Hemphill, ELS