Why Zest Diabetes Care ?
Diabetes is a silent disease, which can affect any or all of the major organs such as the eye, heart, kidney, brain and nervous system. Also, as diabetes is a generalised disorder, usually, presence of one complication of diabetes is suggestive of presence of some other complication as well.
If for some medical illness, when a person with diabetes get admitted in hospital, he/she usually has a longer stay for that illness as compared to a person without diabetes. This is because of delayed recovery as a result of uncontrolled diabetes and presence of various diabetic complications. Due to limited health care support from the government, the treatment cost of diabetes and its complications may not be affordable for majority of people with diabetes.
Most people with diabetes are aware of importance of keeping their diabetes in control to prevent development of diabetic complications. However, due to various reasons such as 1) inappropriate diet 2) lack of regular exercise 3) ignorance about diabetic complications 4) poor motivation 5) inadequate sleep 6) non-adherence to medications 7) high medical expenses 8) lack of family support 9) irregular check-ups and 10) absence of structured diabetes care, majority of people with diabetes have uncontrolled diabetes.
To overcome the above problems, a new concept of ‘structured diabetes care’ has been evolving worldwide and several research studies have reported beneficial effects of ‘structured diabetes care’ as compared to routine medical care offered to people with diabetes. We have developed an annual structured diabetes care program based on the clinical practice recommendations of American diabetes association (ADA) and national institute of clinical excellence (NICE), UK and customised it for Indian patients with diabetes.
At ZEST Diabetes Care centre, all patients with diabetes are educated about diabetes, which consists of providing information on signs and symptoms, diagnosis, disease progression, self monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), recognition and management of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar level), sick day routine, clinical monitoring, essential investigations, types of medical treatment, and prevention of various diabetic complications.
These subjects are also given information on the importance of lifestyle modification (quitting smoking, reducing stress), customised diet, daily exercise, disease monitoring through biochemical tests and clinical assessments (weight, blood pressure, foot assessment, peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy and systemic examination), at regular intervals and compliance to prescribed diabetes treatment, to achieve best possible health with diabetes and prevent/delay diabetic complications.
ZEST Diabetes Care centre is a one stop health centre for comprehensive management of diabetes and its complications. The centre is equipped with in house facility for blood tests, ECG, 2 D ECHO, treadmill test, comprehensive eye check-up, abdominal sonography, diabetic foot check-up, physiotherapy, pharmacy, diet guidance and counselling.
The staff consists of internationally and nationally trained specialists such as diabetologist, cardiologist, ophthalmologist, nephrologist, radiologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, foot care specialists for holistic treatment of diabetes and its various complications. In addition the allied staff consists of experienced professionals to provide ethical, cost effective and compassionate care for all the visiting patients.
We have recently published a study on structured diabetes care in which we described the benefits of structured diabetes care as compared to routine medical care of people with diabetes. Although, there was improvement in diabetes control in both the groups, however, those in the structured diabetes care group had significantly better diabetes control. In addition, there were significant improvements in blood pressure and laboratory parameters (lipid profile, haemoglobin and microalbuminuria). (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13410-014-0267-y)
The ‘proactive care approach’ for people with diabetes, with on-going diabetes education, customised diet and exercise therapy, regular clinical and biochemical estimations, and monitoring of therapy, has proven to be helpful in to achieve greater improvement in the structured diabetes care group; suggesting that structured diabetes care is the way forward for diabetes management to reduce the risk of developing diabetic complications and hospitalisation. This in turn may also help to reduce the health care cost for people with diabetes in the long run.