Professional Documents
Culture Documents
““C
Caarrddiioovvaassccuullaarr R
Riisskk R Diiaabbeetteess””
Reedduuccttiioonn iinn D
Presented By: Laurie Sadler, MD
Date: Thursday December 10
Location: Creekside Restaurant
8803 Brecksville Rd Brecksville, OH 44141
NEO-AADE Sponsorship of AADE Live Webinars:
President-Elect/Program Chair, Renee Ellert has had the dual responsibility of both planning (finding locations,
finding speakers, and choosing topics) for our general membership meetings and finding facilities willing to hold
AADEs Live Webinars. NEO-AADE has sponsored 3 of AADEs Live Webinars so far this year with great success
in turnout.
The most recent AADE seminar sponsored by NEO-AADE took place on Wednesday November 4 at the Diabetes
Association of Greater Cleveland 3602 South Green Rd in Beachwood. ―When eating becomes a Problem, Body
Image and Diabetes.‖ We’d like to thank DAGC for hosting the event.
We’d also like to thank those NEO-AADE members who helped secure meeting rooms to host the previous AADE
webinars at their facilities this year: Roberta Sass, Mollie Secor, and Andrea Dunn for coordinating the January 7
―Carbohydrate Counting‖ Webinar at the downtown campus of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF).
Renee Ellert’s coordination of the May 6 ―Teaching Tips‖ Webinar at the CCF Family Health Center Beachwood
and Mary Ellen Grady for coordinating the ―Medications Update‖ Webinar held at the CCF Fairview-Diabetes and
Wellness Center, July 8.
We are planning to continue to sponsor these webinars several times per year. Again these would take place during
those months when our general membership meetings are not held and we’d like to sponsor one webinar held during
the summer. We will notify members, by email and on our website, all future NEO-AADE sponsored Webinars.
NEO-AA DE m em be rs can at t end fo r fr ee and t he cost for non m em bers i s cu rrent l y $ 5 . 0 0 .
Staying Green:
Since we are no longer paying postage to mail newsletters and communications, we will be paying a
monthly fee for an improved website. Please bear with us as we are utilizing our volunteer efforts to
―spruce up‖ our website. Accomplishing the task of improving our website has been a much more
time consuming endeavor than we initially thought. I would like to thank Renee Ellert, Rose Anne
Anthony and Webmaster Matt Sebastian for assisting us with this task. We will keep members
updated on when the ―Spruced Up‖ version of our Website will ―go live‖ and encourage members to
view our website to check out it’s ―New Look”.
WEBSITE:
www.neoaade.org
www.neoaade.net
www.neoaade.com
Correspondence Update:
All future correspondence will be in the form of emails. We have been asking members to give us their email
addresses at the past several meetings. Keeping us informed of changes in your contact information is very
important. If you have a change in your email address, please contact our Corresponding Secretary, Cathy Tobey at
tobeyc@ccf.org or 216 228-8243. If you would still like to receive mailed information, or you do not have internet
access call Cathy. Cathy has done a great job getting all the important correspondence to members and we want to
make sure members continue to receive information from NEO-AADE.
Look in your inbox for important emails coming later this month:
December General Membership/Annual Meeting
2010 Ballot of Officers via Survey Monkey
Changes / Amendments to NEO-AADE Bylaws 2009
Nominations of Officers:
Jan Anselmo, past president and member of the nominating committee, has been hard at work finding a great slate of
officers for 2010. She has found noteworthy candidates for each office position and for the membership chair, and
nominating committee positions. As it turns out we do not have any contested offices for this election.
At the October meeting, active members voted on a paper ballot. We need to ratify the previous vote due to an error
made in the election procedure. Our bylaws state that we need to present the slate of officers ―in writing‖ prior to
the vote which was not done properly. Therefore, the ―Slate of Officers‖ information in this newsletter serves as
―written communication‖ as is required by the bylaws.
We will be sending out the NEO-AADE 2010 SLATE OF OFFICERS/BALLOT via email to all current active
members (including those who voted at the October general membership meeting) using ―Survey Monkey‖, an
electronic means of conducting surveys/elections. Please check your emails soon for the Survey Monkey link and
submit your ballot.
Below is the slate of officers for NEO-AADE in 2010. Swearing in of the officers will be held during our December
general membership meeting.
Corresponding Cathy Tobey RN, BSN (Current Corresponding Secretary running again)
Secretary Cleveland Clinic Foundation Lakewood Family Health Center
Treasurer Rose Anne Anthony, RD, LD, CDE (Current Treasurer running for another year)
St. Vincent Charity Hospital
I participated in a conference call for local AADE chapter leaders on the results from the two AADE on-line surveys
recently conducted (June – August 2009). Some of the key findings I found pertinent to our chapter include:
--Members chose: face to face events, appropriate topics, good speakers and convenient locations as attributes
of an ideal session
Our general membership meetings are all face to face, usually within a 1-1 ½ half hour drive or less for most
members and we pride ourselves in the networking and unique comradery that takes place among our
members, friends, previous and current co-workers at our meetings.
--Most members (65%) stated professional education and staying current/up to date with diabetes issues as the
primary reason for attendance at meetings.
Our Program Chair/President Elect often finds notable speakers on current and timely Diabetes topics.
--Cost is not a deciding factor for involvement in their local chapter. Controllable items such as location & topic
ranked higher as did “ability to make meetings due to work schedules for involvement”.
We often have at least 2 of the 4 general membership meetings free of charge and most dinner meetings
have been graciously sponsored by pharma/medical device companies and the dinner meetings are often free or at a
low cost. Hopefully this helps gives one less reason a member chooses not to come to a meeting.
--Although websites are utilized by roughly 30% of members, some chapters do not have a website. The
calendar is one of the top reasons members visit the website with legislation & advocacy having fewer web visits.
Twelve % of members reported they never visited the website of their local chapter.
NEO-AADE is currently updating and creating a ―New Look‖ to our website. Meeting information/calendar info
has always been on the site.
Summary: AADE felt as a whole, the research revealed: AADE members are focused on professional education
and access to knowledge and value local delivery.
--We also learned that AADE members stated they were willing to become more ―active‖ in their local chapter but
not necessarily by holding an office position. NEO-AADE currently has several committees within Neo-AADE
including: Legislation Committee, Membership Committee, Programming Committee, and Website Committees.
If you would like to become a member of any of these committees, please let me know at our next general
membership meeting in December or by email at jill.richards-divita@roche.com.
On The Legislative Front:
Mary Chism RN, CDE, our Chapter Legislative Coordinator (CLC), and
Treasurer Rose Anne Anthony RD, CDE, a legislative committee member,
joined over 75 other AADE members who travelled to Washington DC to
attend the 2009 AADE Public Policy Forum on June 15th and 16th.
It was the first time AADE had a public policy forum independent of an
AADE annual meeting taking place in Washington DC. This particular public
policy forum consisted of informational sessions on Healthcare Reform, HR
2425: The Medicare DSMT Act of 2009, HR 1402: Catalyst to Better Diabetes
Care Act and trainings on how to effectively communicate these issues with
Congress.
Mary and Rose Anne had an opportunity to make appointments with their
legislators from Ohio. Since most Congressmen/Senators are not in their
Washington DC offices during the summer, Mary and Rose Anne met with the
legislative aides of their legislators to educate them on the importance of HR
2425 which would give CDEs the opportunity to gain provider status for
diabetes education under Medicare. Three additional congressmen signed on
as co-sponsors to the H.R. 2425 legislation immediately following the forum.
Advocacy e- newsletter
AADE announced that the e-Advocacy, Advice and Announcements newsletter is up and running on the AADE
website. This newsletter is a wonderful way to keep updated on the AADES legislative activities click on the link
listed below to access the e-advocacy newsletters for September and October
http://www.diabeteseducator.org/PolicyAdvocacy/2009.09/articles.html
http://www.diabeteseducator.org/PolicyAdvocacy/2009.10/articles.html
Additional resources:
AADEs advocacy specialist James Specker is available to help answer questions at any time on the phone or by email.
He can be reached at (312) 601-4873.His email is jspecker@aadenet.org the general advocacy email is
advocacy@aadenet.org.
Information about all current Federal legislation is available at Thomas (Library of Congress):
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/abt_thom.html
Ohio Continues as 1 of 4 States Without
a Diabetes Cost Reduction Act (DCRA)
Ohio, Alabama, Idaho and North Dakota remain without the benefits of a
Diabetes Cost Reduction Act (DCRA). The DCRA seeks to ensure that
Ohioans with diabetes are guaranteed coverage for diabetes education,
Equipment and supplies in state regulated health plans.
One major milestone for this legislation is that in June of 2009, the DCRA
was passed by the House Health Committee, This was the first time this
occurred in more than a decade. This was a huge step for the DCRA. The
DCRA still needs to pass the full House of Representatives and then the
procedures for passage of the bill in the senate will be similar.
Click on the link below to send a letter to your legislator:
You can receive updates on the DCRA in Ohio by email by becoming a diabetes advocate for the American
Diabetes Association (ADA). You may sign up as an advocate at the link below:
http://advocacy.diabetes.org
Thank you to all those who are already advocates and those who are becoming advocates!!!!
Hypoglycemia:
That Dog-Gone Low Blood Sugar
This column is going to be a little different, because instead of explaining something about diabetes, I’m going to
tell a story about some recent events in my own life with diabetes.
I have had type 2 diabetes since 1991. I was already a diabetes educator when I diagnosed my own diabetes, and
soon told my doctor about it. Because I had severe side effects with oral medications, I have used insulin from the
first year. After doing multiple injections for several years, I got an insulin pump, and have managed my diabetes
with a pump ever since then.
As a diabetes educator, I have seen all the major diabetes complications in my patients, so I am highly motivated to
prevent complications in myself. Therefore, I have done intensive management from the beginning, trying to keep
my blood sugar as close to normal as possible. Of course, it’s nearly impossible to do this perfectly. So at times, I
have low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia.
On the day this story begins, I was lying on my bed. A little circular thought was running around my brain, saying, “I
don’t feel so good…. I wonder what’s happening to me…. I really don’t feel good…. I wonder what this is…. I don’t
feel good…. I wonder…..” Round and round this thought went, repeating itself over and over.
Suddenly, I felt a cold, wet nose and a fuzzy snout against my neck. My dog, Yoda, was pushing against my neck.
He is small – only about 11 pounds – but he was pushing with all his might. Finally, it occurred to me that he
wanted me to get up. I stood up, still not feeling so good and wondering what was happening to me. Yoda pushed
against the back of my leg. A drop of sweat dripped off the end of my nose. That drop of sweat broke through my
circular wondering with a fact: Sweat dripping off the end of my nose is one of my personal signs of hypoglycemia. I
realized I was having low blood sugar, so I went and checked it. It was 57 – low enough that I needed to treat it, so
I ate four glucose tablets. Fifteen minutes later, my blood sugar was 72, so I knew I had treated it enough. Later, I
thought about what had happened, and I realized that Yoda had been signaling me.
I had heard that dogs sometimes alert their owners to hypoglycemia, but never expected that Yoda, at the age of
eight years, would suddenly be one of them. I wondered if he would do it again. To make a long story short, my old
dog had indeed learned a new trick. He has signaled me every time I have had hypoglycemia in his presence for
about the last year.
After my experience, I became very curious about dogs that alert their owners to hypoglycemia, and searched the
terms “diabetes alert dog” and “diabetes service dog” on the Internet. I learned that there are four schools in the
U.S. that train dogs for this purpose. I also found several newspaper and magazine stories about dogs that, like
Yoda, spontaneously started alerting their owners to hypoglycemia.
After reading about all of these dogs, I decided that it would be helpful if I were certain that Yoda would always alert
me, and to have him with me more of the time. In order to do that, I needed him to learn better manners for being in
public. Although he was trained well enough to be a good pet, a service dog must have a higher standard of good
behavior. While the Americans with Disabilities Act does guarantee that service dogs can accompany their humans
in public, this right applies only if the dog has excellent public behavior. A service dog owner whose dog is out of
control or threatening in public can be asked to remove the dog.
I found a service dog trainer in my area, and Yoda and I met with her. I learned more than I knew there was to
know about dog training, and once I knew the training techniques, Yoda learned very quickly. He now has a service
dog vest, and he knows that when he is wearing the vest he must be on his best behavior.
For most of the last year, Yoda has gone with me almost everywhere. He is quite consistent about alerting me to
hypoglycemia, often before I recognize that I am feeling the symptoms. (I do always check my blood sugar when he
alerts me, just to be sure.) As a person with type 2 diabetes, I do not have hypoglycemia as often or as severely as
many people with type 1. But Yoda’s help has improved my life. He lets me know when I have low blood sugar
early in the process, while it is dropping, but before it gets really low. By treating early, I can avoid feeling awful for
several hours afterwards.
So what would I say to someone who is thinking of getting a diabetes alert dog? First of all, I believe that it’s
important to work with a professional service dog trainer. A diabetes alert dog needs to be consistent in detecting
low blood sugar, for obvious safety reasons. Furthermore, as explained above, anyone who takes a dog out in
public has a responsibility for that dog behaving well.
Another consideration is that training for diabetes alert dogs is relatively new. Most service dog trainers do not
know the training techniques. Therefore, I think a person who wants a diabetes alert dog should probably get one
from one of the schools.
Now, here I have to add a disclaimer: I do not have any personal experience with any of the schools. I only know
what I have read on their web sites. If you want a diabetes alert dog, I would suggest that you contact all of them.
Some will only serve people from a particular part of the country. The amount of time that you would spend with
your dog in training, and the fee for a dog, can be very different at different schools. I imagine that there might be
differences in their training procedures. You’ll have to find out as much as you can from the schools, and then
make the decision that you think is best for you.
Having said all that, I hope that if you decide to get a diabetes alert dog, your experience is as good as mine has
been. Please let me know! You can contact me through the editor of the Voice of the Diabetic.
About the Author Ann S. Williams is an RN, with a PhD in Psychology, and has worked as a diabetes
educator for 20 years. She has specialized in teaching independent diabetes self-management for blind
people and writes and speaks frequently on this topic for other health care professionals. She was the
founder and past chair of the Disabilities Specialty Practice Group of the American Association of Diabetes
Educators, and remains an active member of that group.
Member’s Spotlight …..…
As president of NEO-AADE, I am constantly gleaming with pride when I see one of our members volunteering at a
state or national level within their profession. The second member I would like to ―spotlight‖ is Andrea Dunn, RD,
LD, CDE. I have seen fellow NEO-AADE member Andrea Dunn’s name often in print. In the Journal of the
American Dietetic Association volume 104, issue 12, page 1804 Dec 2004 she had her article entitled, Feeding the
Athlete, published. She is the Communications Chair of the Diabetes Care and Education (DCE) Dietetic Practice
Group of the American Dietetic Association and has served as the editor of their newsletter. She also has been a
presenter at AADEs National Meetings including last year in Washington DC. Since I knew her involvement in
diabetes and the profession was a perfect example of what I would like to include in our newsletter and website to
highlight one of our members, I asked Andrea if she would send me a few paragraphs of her accomplishments so I
could create a ―write-up‖ on her. Instead of providing information about herself, she humbly submitted the
information below containing helpful information for patients and health care professionals and encourages other
professionals to submit articles or become reviewers for the newsletters or to just get more involved.
I want to thank the following individuals for the time and effort they put toward NEO-AADE this year:
2009 Executive Committee Members/Officers/Standing Committee Members: Renee Ellert-President Elect,
Cathy Tobey-Corresponding Secretary, Helen Richwine-Recording Secretary, Rose Anne Anthony-Treasurer,
Past President Janet Anselmo, Judy Zangmeister-Membership Chair, Mary Chism-Legislative Chair,
Matt Sebastian-Webmaster, Marilyn Herget-Historian, Tellers: Maryellen Eickman-Fiala and Mary Beth Scala
Obviously having diabetes played a major role in me attaining a career in health care and ultimately in diabetes
education, but I realize people often work in many different areas within their profession before ending up in
diabetes education. So in many ways ….being a diabetes educator is a ―choice‖ to some degree …. and for
whatever reason all of you ―chose‖ to become a diabetes educator. Thank you!! Thank You!! THANK YOU!!!.
Until there is a cure for this disease, I am so thankful to have fellow NEO-AADE members educating fellow patients
with diabetes. Whatever inspired you to become a diabetes educator …. Patients (me included) are all the more
fortunate as a result.