It is estimated that ∼85% of people with diabetes are managed in primary care. Back in the day, primary care clinicians often referred patients to an endocrinologist once the decision was made to initiate insulin. Diabetes was considered too complex and too fraught with danger. So, once a primary care provider needed to proceed beyond metformin and sulfonylureas, the patient was referred to a specialist.
Times have changed. Diabetes has become a larger pandemic, and the base of clinicians interested in and available to treat diabetes has increased. Family physicians, internists, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners now provide expanded options for the care of diabetes. Certified diabetes educators, pharmacists, and other clinicians provide additional and often crucial support. The armamentarium of insulins and other pharmacological agents to address the core physiological defects of the disease has dramatically increased.
Diabetes is the perfect model of primary care chronic disease management, highlighting the crucial role we can play. Our ability to provide the 4 Cs of care—first Contact, Continuing and Comprehensive care, and Coordination of services—places us in the ideal position to manage the myriad concerns that affect our patients. I believe that a fifth C—Compassion—enables us to develop therapeutic relationships that optimize outcomes. In addition, many of our primary care peers have leadership roles in diabetes-related education, as well as in the development of guidelines to assist us in the management of this complex and challenging disease.
Clinical Diabetes is the premier primary care journal of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Our editorial mission is to assist you in providing optimal care for your patients and their families. By providing access to relevant research and other clinically applicable materials, we endeavor to serve as a resource for you.
I am delighted to take the helm as editor-in-chief as of this issue, and I am pleased to have a team of outstanding diabetes and primary care experts assisting me in this venture. Gayle M. Lorenzi, RN, CDE, of the University of California, San Diego, and Doron Schneider, MD, FACP, of Abingdon Hospital—Jefferson Health in Abingdon, Pa., will serve as deputy editors. Our editorial team will also include associate editors Kelly Close, MBA, Michael Heile, MD, former editor-in-chief Davida F. Kruger, MSN, APN-BC, BC-ADM, Louis Kuritzky, MD, Pablo F. Mora, MD, FACE, MSc, CDE, Lucia M. Novak, MSN, ANP-BC, BC-ADM, CDTC, Jay Shubrook, DO, FAAFP, FACOFP, and Carol H. Wysham, MD, as well as an editorial board of more than 20 respected diabetes and primary care professionals who offer invaluable suggestions and feedback throughout the year.
Beginning with this issue and continuing throughout the year, we will be adding new features to the journal to increase its value and usefulness to readers. For example, in this, our first issue, we have launched a more accessible cover design and a new department: “Commentary” (p. 51). We are also now including in each issue a patient information page (p. 71), offering authoritative information from ADA on key diabetes topics for you to photocopy and share with patients. We are also pleased to publish in this issue an abridged version of the ADA’s Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2017 tailored by the ADA Primary Care Advisory Group to highlight the information most applicable to primary care.
We welcome your feedback on these new offerings and your suggestions for more as we begin this endeavor. Potential authors who would like to propose an article for Clinical Diabetes may send an email message to me at [email protected], with “Clinical Diabetes proposal” in the subject line and a summary of the proposed article in the body of the email. However, advance approval is not necessary, and authors are encouraged to simply submit their articles for review and consideration through our online submission website (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/clinical-diabetes). Additional information about the journal and our submission process can be found on our website (http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org).