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Showing posts from March, 2020

Imposters in our midst - don't be a tool for their "success"

It turns out that imposters are common; fakers, pretenders, liars, whatever you want to call them.  They are people, often with some power or influence, who build a reputation on rumors but don't actually have a resume to back them up.  Donald Trump is the most famous one.  How does he get away with it?  It seems that all you need is to pretend you've done nothing wrong, lie with a straight face, make accusations /claims that catch people off guard with "facts" that are difficult to contradict in the moment in places where social norms limit any temptation to challenge.  He is also surrounded by people who will continue to spread his lies - like Kelly Anne Conway - famous for "alternative facts", Fox News who wants his approval and the ratings to go with it.  It's also incredibly helpful to get on the "good side" of leaders who are naive and don't really know you.  People like Trump can be very charming when it suits them and

Why The COVID19 Pandemic could be very good for Diabetes Care

I have wanted to develop "Just-in-time" care for patients with diabetes via the idea of a virtual clinic.  What this means to me is that the right patient is connected with the right diabetes team at the right time. Our current paradigm is to have pre-scheduled clinic visits - a nice, tidy, orderly progression of patients coming to see the team for advice.  There are several problems with this model - it's not really the best use of limited resources.  Patient selection is random in that patients who come happen to be the ones who were referred, but this does not necessarily equate to those who need to be seen the most.  Conceivably, if each member of the team (RN, RD, MD) spends time with the patient, up to 3 or more hours are dedicated to serving one patient.  It's just not efficient and it's not really patient centred care when the patient has to take time away from work and the costs also include transportation, parking, childcare etc.  For many patients