A lot of time and effort needs to be spent finding the right patient-physician match. And no where is that more relevant than a diabetic looking for an endocrinologist.
Diabetes blogger Amy Tenderich gives some great tips, most of which I hadn’t thought of.
Of course, it goes without saying that if the match isn’t right, a second or third opinion is always within a patient’s right.
But, how do you know if your endocrinologist is technologically savvy, or progressive in his or her’s treatment? One way would be to find out how often they use insulin pump therapy. Asking local pump and company reps, or simply, as Amy suggests, “[asking] the receptionist what percentage of patients are on insulin pumps, or if the doctor has particular preferences to prescribing insulin pumps to young children or people with type 2 diabetes,” is helpful.
Other tips include finding full-service clinics that use a certified diabetes educator (CDE), which tend to emphasize a team-based approach, and also if you can, an endocrinologist that has diabetes himself.
Good piece with tips I’ll be sharing with my own patients.
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