Overview

This online activity reviews the comprehensive, evidence-based, multidisciplinary strategies required for the optimal management of patients with diabetes. It features a variety of formats including online presentations, text summaries, audio interviews, case studies, and self-assessment questions. The program is presented in three convenient modules:

• The Intersection of Cardiology & Endocrinology
• Highlights from the 93rd Annual Meeting & Expo of The Endocrine Society (ENDO 2011)
• Gender, Race and Ethnic Disparities in Diabetes

Click the Start Program button to begin learning the latest in diabetes care and treatment paradigms as they apply to patients with or at risk of cardiovascular disease and the myriad challenges of optimal patient care at the crossroads of cardiology and endocrinology.

Statement of Need

The epidemic of diabetes in the United States affects 25.8 million people of all ages, including 26.9% of the population 65 years of age and older. Additional challenges lie ahead as another 25% of the total population has prediabetes.

Diabetes is a coronary heart disease (CHD) risk equivalent, so cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes should be treated as intensively as in people with CHD and anyone with atherosclerosis needs targeted care for metabolic risk factors. Given this critical need for comprehensive care, the intersection of cardiology and endocrinology has become a busy place with many challenges. Clinical perspectives need to run parallel to provide preventive and therapeutic solutions, leaving cardiovascular healthcare providers with patients who have diabetes complicating their CHD and endocrinologists struggling with the most vulnerable diabetic patients who have cardiovascular disease, and both specialties working to reduce the coronary risk factors in all of their patients.

Target Audience

• Cardiologists and cardiology fellows
• Endocrinologists and endocrine fellows
• Primary care physicians
• Nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists

Important Dates

Date of Release: August 2011
Term of Approval/Date of CME/CE Expiration: August 2012

Goals

The goals of this activity are to improve clinical application of evidence-based guidelines and performance metrics, redress racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in care, and reduce the challenges that healthcare professionals face in the management of patients with diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk or established cardiovascular disease.

After completing the activity, the clinician will be better able to:

• Increase awareness of cardiovascular risks and their consequences among patients with diabetes


• Explain the roles played separately and together by cardiovascular healthcare professionals and endocrinologists in treating patients with diabetes


• Apply evidence-based guidelines in clinical practice


• Summarize and apply clinical guidelines and algorithms


• Assess mortality risk in patients with type 2 diabetes in various settings


• Recommend appropriate pharmacotherapy for patients with type 2 diabetes and different cardiovascular risk factors with or without concomitant cardiovascular disease


• State several racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in care


• Explain several ethnic differences in diabetes complications


• Determine the impact of socioeconomic status on disease prevention and management


• Discuss the risks associated with gestational diabetes mellitus