India Needs Highly Trained Diabetes Specialists – Dr Sanjeev Agarwal

Bangalore Nov 4,2013 : Diabetacare, a personalized diabetes care provider will conduct certified programmes for diabetes specialists and nurses in the next few months in India as Diabetacare believes that these specialists in India have to be highly trained to handle the growing menace of diabetes. This was disclosed at DEEP 2013 (Diabetacare Expert Education Programs), an International Symposium on Global Epidemic of Diabetes organized by Diabetacare in association with European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) today.

Over 140, diabetes specialists from across the country attended the symposium which was addressed by veterans in diabetes from Europe and Asia. The symposium was conducted to educate the physician community on the importance of early screening of diabetes as a preventive care measure, and about the newer developments in the field of diabetes.

India is now at the forefront of the global epidemic of diabetes, with over 10% of the 120 billion population are suffering from diabetes. The need of the hour is to understand and adopt technology to treat patients suffering from diabetes. Speaking at the event Dr KM Prasanna Kumar, Medical Director India, Diabetacare said “In the next few years, we will see more developments in the form of virtual clinics, which will help in constant monitoring of the patients from anywhere. Diabetes is a disease of numbers and there is no need for a patient to come to the clinic.”

Adding to this Dr. Sanjeev Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Diabetacarementioned “Currently, more than 65 million people are living with diabetes in India and this number is expected to increase in the next couple of years. Advances in the medical field and increase in accessibility to doctors, has led to the increase in the life expectancy. But when it comes to diabetes there is no personalized care, which is vital. Through this Symposium we aim to educate the physician community in this country on how to manage diabetes patient. We want to bring in the best practices that are followed globally to India, to improve the quality of life of a person with diabetes”.

In India people with diabetes tend to ignore the complications associated with foot which leads to amputation in most cases. Speaking on this subject Dr. Andrew Boulton, President of EASD said “Diabetic neuropathy is something that needs our immediate focus. As doctors, as per protocol we check all the vital organs in patients but we fail to check the foot. Diabetic neuropathy causes damage to nerves, this occurs as a result of high blood pressure and diabetes. 1 in 7 diabetes patients are at the risk of losing their legs as a result of ‘foot ulcers’. We need to educate the physician community about the risks of a ‘foot ulcer’ as this is not a very well known concept.”

Diabetes treatment cannot be generalized as one size fit all approach is not effective. Sharing his insights speaking on this problem Mr. Satyan Rajbhandari, Group Medical Director of Diabetacare and General Secretary of Health Exchange Nepal (UK) said “Personalized care for Diabetic patients is the need of the hour in this country. The aim of personalized care is to standardize and brings in a structure to monitor diabetes based on the individual’s lifestyle. We need diabetes specialist nurses (DSN) who can be a critical link between a doctor and a patient as they are the closest to patient when compared to a doctor. These nurses should be capable in monitoring the patient on a regular basis and identify the kind of dosage that needs to be given to a patient and also the diet that needs to be followed.”

Dr. Sharath Chandran, General Manager – Operations and Projects (India), Diabetacare said, “Diabetacare will be opening 10 more centres in and around the city in the next 6 to 8 months for the easy accessibility of services for the common people”.

Also speaking at the symposium were some eminent physicians from the field of diabetes like Dr. Vageesh Ayeer, HOD of Endocrinology at St.John’s Medical College & Hospital, Bangalore who spoke on ‘Improving efficacy while minimizing risk of hypoglycaemia: opportunities from designer proteins, Dr. Karin Schara, consulting Orthopaedic Surgeon at University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovani who spoke on ‘Surgical management of diabetic footulcers and charcot neuropathy’; Dr. Deepak Jumani, Sexologist, Mumbai who shared his views on ‘Erectile dysfunction and diabetes’ Dr. Sruti Chandrasekaran, Endocrinologist, diabetologist and metabolism from Sree Vikas Center for Hormones and Mental Health, Chennai on GLP1 receptors agonists in Type 2 Diabetes spoke on, a clinicians view and Dr. Bipin Sethi, Endocrinologist in Uppal, Hyderabad spoke on SGL 2 inhibitors – Canaglifozin.

Overwhelmed with the response Diabetacare announced that this symposium would be an annual event and training Indian diabetologists would be an ongoing initiative. CCI Newswire