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State Health Department names Joslin Diabetes Center a Center of Excellence

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Joslin Diabetes Center at SUNY Upstate Medical University has been designated as a Diabetes Center of Excellence by the New York State Department of Health. The center is located at 3229 E. Genesee St., in Syracuse.

Joslin is one of five hospital-based diabetes programs in New York State—and the only one between Albany and Buffalo—to receive this distinction. The other programs include those affiliated with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Albany Medical Center Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

"We are very excited to receive this distinction," said Ruth Weinstock, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center and SUNY Upstate professor of medicine and chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at University Hospital. "It is evidence of our commitment to excellence in diabetes care and prevention."

The designation was based on the ability of the Joslin team to help improve diabetes care and prevention efforts in our communities in Central and Northern New York.

"To compete for the distinction, we were asked to submit a five-year proposal that incorporates current research findings into innovative multidisciplinary collaborative approaches for prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of pre-diabetes and diabetes," said Weinstock.

Joslin's plan included several objectives that ultimately would result in meeting four goals. The goals are to:

? spearhead diabetes prevention and awareness efforts by participating in

initiatives aimed at decreasing overweight and obesity, emphasizing nutrition and physical activity directed activities and increasing awareness of diabetes, its risk factors and diagnostic criteria;

? provide educational programs to providers and staff to improve diabetes control in outpatient settings and improve adherence to practice guidelines;

? enhance provider knowledge about the significant interplay between diabetes and mental health problems and appropriate pyschosocial and behavior management intervention strategies to address this comorbidity; and

? improve the quality of care of patients with diabetes in University Hospital.

To meet its goals, the plan lists several objectives that include collaborations with community partners to coordinate, develop and begin to implement plans for obesity and diabetes awareness and prevention. The objectives also included developing and implementing provider education programs, the delivery of diabetes patient education group classes via telemedicine to distant sites and school-based telemedicine programs.

Also included in the plan was to begin the process of developing an innovative curriculum to be used to educate healthcare providers about how diabetes complicates psychological disorders and how psychological disorders complicate diabetes management.

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