While patients well understand high blood glucose can lead to ugly complications like blindness and kidney failure, few recognize that keeping cholesterol and blood pressure low are equally critical steps in avoiding deadly heart attacks. And their providers aren't getting the job done either, it seems. In fact, the CDC says only 7 percent of patients are getting all of the treatments they need.
Why the gap? In part, it's because many primary care doctors aren't adequately trained in diabetes care, getting only a few hours of instruction on the condition when in medical school. These PCPs, in turn, often spend no more than 10 minutes with such patients. Not only that, critics say, pharma advertising often encourage them to focus on blood sugar rather than heart attack risks. Unfortunately, that often leads to needless heart-attack deaths.
To learn more about the diabetes care gap:
- read this piece from The New York Times
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