Nicolas Cuttriss, MD, MPH, FAAP
ECHO Diabetes COVID-19 Director
The goal of the Diabetes in the Time of COVID-19 ECHO is to empower primary care providers to address the needs of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in their communities who do not have access to routine specialty care. Preliminary data on outcomes for those with diabetes and COVID-19 indicate higher hospitalization, intensive care, and fatality rates compared to those without reported underlying health conditions. Minimizing hyperglycemia and “suboptimal control” is paramount to reducing diabetes patient risk and vulnerability to infection and complications, including COVID-19.
Now, more than ever, it is important for care teams in the primary care setting to support patients with diabetes to obtain achievable goals for their blood glucose, blood pressure and beyond. Our ECHO program will support you in managing patients with diabetes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Multidisciplinary diabetes faculty from Stanford, 12 other academic institutions across the United States and the diabetes patient advocacy organization DiaTribe present free CME/CE accredited webinars that provide urgent information and updated data on complex diabetes care during COVID-19. Many people who require complex diabetes management are typically seeing primary care providers as opposed to diabetes specialists. From how to utilize telemedicine to sick day management for people with diabetes, experts in the diabetes field have come together to support primary care providers in their management of these complex patients.
We invite you to access the free on-demand webinars any time and obtain CME/CE credit for each program you attend. The first 16-week series of live webinars has been completed, and based on the feedback we received, we are planning new sessions with new topics. In the live webinar sessions, you have the opportunity as a provider to submit a patient case and get advice from our faculty for your patient case.
We hope that this series helps provide knowledge and encouragement to you as health care providers as we all navigate caring for people with diabetes in the time of COVID-19. Thank you for being a champion for people with diabetes.
Provider & Patient Interviews
During this time of global crisis, the Project ECHO model has a special role to play in quickly helping to connect experts and frontline healthcare professionals caring for patients with diabetes during the time of COVID-19.