What Do Patients Hear When You Say "Diabetes"?
What Do Patients Hear When You Say "Diabetes"?
"You have type 2 diabetes," you tell the heavyset woman sitting in your office. She stares back blankly as you describe the new reality she faces: a chronic disease that will raise her risk for heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke; a condition related to obesity that will require careful attention to diet and exercise for the rest of her life. You explain which drugs you'll try first, and that insulin shots may be necessary down the road.
As the patient leaves your office, you wonder how the patient will proceed. Will she take the medications you prescribed? Will she try to lose weight? Will she be conscientious about monitoring her glucose levels?
Clinicians attending the recent annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Orlando, Florida, were offered a rare glimpse inside the emotional and sometimes inexplicable world of a patient with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, portrayed in a 1-act play called Diabetes: Close to the Heart. The play featured professional actors in scenes depicting physician-patient interactions as well as the patient's discussions with friends and family. The goal of the play, organizers said, was to encourage clinicians to engage with their patients in a way that empowers them to actively manage their diabetes.
At the conclusion of the play, which received a rousing ovation, a panel of experts assembled on stage to discuss the play and to answer questions from the audience.
Panelists agreed that many clinicians miss a key opportunity to educate patients at the point of diagnosis.
"We should jump all over them early in the disease -- not with medications but with interventions," said Davida F. Kruger, MSN, APRN-BC, BC-ADM, a certified nurse practitioner in diabetes at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.
Finding the right approach is important, added Steven V. Edelman, MD, professor of medicine, University of California, San Diego. Scare tactics never work, he added.
Just as clinicians need to individualize drug therapies for a given patient, they need to tailor their communications with patients to find what motivates them to change, panelists agreed. In the play, the main character was stunned to learn that blindness was a potential outcome of her diabetes, which inspired her to become more active in losing weight and controlling her glucose levels.
Clinicians need to learn patients' stories so that they can convey that they are working together toward the same goals, panelists said.
Editor's note
In the following scene from Diabetes: Close to the Heart, a patient and her husband learn for the first time that she has type 2 diabetes, and her physician tries to explain what she faces. The play was produced with support from Amylin Pharmaceuticals.
"You have type 2 diabetes," you tell the heavyset woman sitting in your office. She stares back blankly as you describe the new reality she faces: a chronic disease that will raise her risk for heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke; a condition related to obesity that will require careful attention to diet and exercise for the rest of her life. You explain which drugs you'll try first, and that insulin shots may be necessary down the road.
As the patient leaves your office, you wonder how the patient will proceed. Will she take the medications you prescribed? Will she try to lose weight? Will she be conscientious about monitoring her glucose levels?
Clinicians attending the recent annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Orlando, Florida, were offered a rare glimpse inside the emotional and sometimes inexplicable world of a patient with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, portrayed in a 1-act play called Diabetes: Close to the Heart. The play featured professional actors in scenes depicting physician-patient interactions as well as the patient's discussions with friends and family. The goal of the play, organizers said, was to encourage clinicians to engage with their patients in a way that empowers them to actively manage their diabetes.
At the conclusion of the play, which received a rousing ovation, a panel of experts assembled on stage to discuss the play and to answer questions from the audience.
Panelists agreed that many clinicians miss a key opportunity to educate patients at the point of diagnosis.
"We should jump all over them early in the disease -- not with medications but with interventions," said Davida F. Kruger, MSN, APRN-BC, BC-ADM, a certified nurse practitioner in diabetes at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.
Finding the right approach is important, added Steven V. Edelman, MD, professor of medicine, University of California, San Diego. Scare tactics never work, he added.
Just as clinicians need to individualize drug therapies for a given patient, they need to tailor their communications with patients to find what motivates them to change, panelists agreed. In the play, the main character was stunned to learn that blindness was a potential outcome of her diabetes, which inspired her to become more active in losing weight and controlling her glucose levels.
Clinicians need to learn patients' stories so that they can convey that they are working together toward the same goals, panelists said.
Editor's note
In the following scene from Diabetes: Close to the Heart, a patient and her husband learn for the first time that she has type 2 diabetes, and her physician tries to explain what she faces. The play was produced with support from Amylin Pharmaceuticals.