Join the Fight Against Diabetes for World Health Day

Since 1950, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated April 7 as World Health Day. Each year this date serves as an opportunity to raise awareness of a timely global health topic. “Halt the Rise: Beat Diabetes” is the official theme of World Health Day 2016 and at Specialdocs, we affirm the call to step up efforts to prevent and treat this disease.

Eugene A. Shmorhun, MD, one of our “Special Docs,” was recently featured in the Fairfax County Times for his letter on the critical need to curb the diabetes and prediabetes epidemic in America. He cites these alarming statistics:

“The Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics reveal that 29.1 million Americans have diabetes, which represents 9.3% of the U.S. population; fully 28% of those people have the disease and have not been diagnosed or treated. An additional 86 million Americans, or 33.3% of the U.S. population, have prediabetes, meaning they have elevated blood sugar but do not yet meet criteria for the diagnosis of diabetes; of those, 90% don’t know their sugars are high, and their health already is adversely affected by abnormal sugar metabolism.”

The need for both preventive care and effective treatment has never been greater. Concierge physicians, with their focus on personalized wellness, and more time to work with patients on establishing and sustaining meaningful lifestyle modifications, have a real opportunity to make a difference.

Dr. Shmorhun, in particular, has been seeing significant results with his Innovative Diabetes Program, developed to help patients overcome obstacles frequently faced when attempting to change their lifestyle and manage their condition. The combination of education, counseling, exercise, online tools and regular, ongoing communication has helped virtually all patients enrolled in the program improve their blood-sugar control.

As Dr. Shmorhun wrote, “We doctors need to continue searching for creative, effective ways to help our patients make necessary lifestyle changes. We should not give up on this effort only to add yet another prescription to the long list of medications our patients already take. Insurance plans need to support these efforts, especially those performed by primary care physicians who can make a difference early on in the disease process. And diabetic patients need to stop accepting more medications and instead commit to changing the way they live to prevent or better treat their disease.”

Dr. Shmorhun runs a personalized care practice in Fairfax, VA. For more information about his diabetes program, visit www.beatdiabetesfhf.com or call 703.573.6400.

Are you on the forefront of the fight against diabetes? If you’re a physician who’s developed a new way to motivate and inspire your patients to better manage their diabetes, we want to hear your thoughts. Share them with us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.