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Diabetes

Diabetes Assessment, Treatment and Self-Management

 
Our highly-experienced team of specialists focus on the individual needs of our patients as they diagnose, treat and manage their diabetes.  Our program is formally certified by the American Diabetes Association.  ADA-certification is granted to programs that meet rigorous criteria for their standards of excellence in diabetes self-management education.  Our staff consists of Certified Diabetes Educators, Registered Dietitians, Pharmacotherapists, Advanced Practice Nurses and Registered Nurses, and exercise physiologists. 

Our care philosophy is built upon a multi-disciplinary, team-based approach. Every patient receives expert, individualized attention and when appropriate, individuals may be invited to participate in leading-edge clinical trials.  Basic and translational research studies are underway at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a team currently studying islet cell transplantation for Type I Diabetic patients.  All the utilize their knowledge as educators and as nationally recognized investigations to develop the most appropriate, innovative, and state-of-the-art care possible for each individual patient.

Diabetes Wellness Education Program

The Nutrition and Wellness Center provides the kind of advanced clinical expertise, specialized services, and state-of-the-art technology you will find only at a major academic medical center.  At the same time, we strive to maintain all of the convenience and comforts found in private physicians' offices.  Our Diabetes Wellness Education Program offers a wide range of services, ranging from the education of newly diagnosed patients to women with gestational diabetes with the goal of helping our patients identify techniques to better manage their health.  We offer support to patients using insulin pumps and collaborate with physicians to provide Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGMS) with most of our education sessions providing written materials for patients to take home.

We provide a full list of diabetes-related clases which are often times covered by your insurance, are designed to help patients, and their families, to successfully self-management their diabetes.

Progress and Prevention

It sounds a little like Star Trek. An electron beam trained toward the heart reads information buried within the body. In real life, it’s electron beam computed tomography, an ultrafast CT scan used to measure calcium buildup in the lining of arteries.

That’s what Theodore Mazzone, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, is looking for. He’s lead investigator for the Chicago Trial, a three-year study involving more than 400 patients from around the city of Chicago. It was designed to compare the effect of two blood-sugar control drugs on arteriosclerosis in diabetes patients.

Dr. Mazzone is a diabetes expert, with more than 20 years experience dedicated to investigating the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis and the macrovascular complications of diabetes. He studies the relationship between these diseases because "the major concern with diabetes in adults is the risk of heart attack or stroke." In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for people with diabetes. The two conditions share risk factors such as obesity and high cholesterol.

When the last participant finishes the trial in April, Dr. Mazzone will have an answer to whether sulfonylureas, a long-standing medication used to treat diabetes, or thiazolidinediones, a newer drug, is more effective in slowing the progress of arteriosclerosis. "We want to see if thiazolidinediones are uniquely effective at preventing the advance of heart disease," he says.

In addition to insight into the effectiveness of the drugs, the Chicago Trial is generating an extensive database, including information broken down according to race and gender. Though it’s premature to suggest the outcome of the study, the team has begun to examine the baseline data and will report its findings as they become available throughout the next year.

"Diabetes is a major public health
problem," Dr. Mazzone says, "but we now have a lot more information and tools. It’s pretty stimulating to be here."

While Dr. Mazzone is concentrated on research and the Chicago Trial, he and his section are equally dedicated to clinical care. They run a Diabetes Self-Management Education Program in the University of Illinois Medical Center’s Nutrition and Wellness Center. Repeatedly designated as a Center of Excellence certified for diabetes education by the American Diabetes Association, the program is, "going like gangbusters," Dr. Mazzone says.

Advantageously located near the weight control program in the Nutrition and Wellness Center, the center uses state-of-the-art approaches to help patients develop strategies for sticking to a health program. It has computers for tracking clinical data, and information about diabetes medical devices. It provides counseling and runs programs in both English and Spanish on topics such as "Food Labels and Dining Out," "Diabetes and Pregnancy," "Ask the Pharmacist" and "Diabetes and Exercise." It also helps patients learn to use the latest diabetes technologies, such as insulin pumps and pens, to control their condition.

To request an appointment or to receive more information, please call 1-866-600-CARE.
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