DATE:April 7, 2008

TO:Dr. Tebeaux

FROM:Joshua Varghese

SUBJECT:Update on Research Progress for Report on Diabetes Treatment

Summary

This report updates the progress of my report and research on the treatment of diabetes. This report will cover three main points:

  • The prevention of diabetes through medications and lifestyle changes
  • The methods of treatment currently available and in use for diabetics
  • Newer methods of treatment and promising experimental treatments

My research comes primarily from articles and resources in Internet databases that focus on health issues. I am taking this approach because news about many of the most promising treatments appears quickly online. Many databases contain substantial information on diabetes, which allows me to check the validity of one site’s information quickly. Research on prevention has gone well because many sources are available on the subject because of the rapid increase of diabetes in the US. Research on the current and new methods for diabetics is not progressing as plannedbecause of the large number of articles discussing these treatments. However, interviews I have scheduled in the near future should solve this issue.

Prevention Research

Research Consulted

  • American Diabetes Association Resources
  • This site has been an excellent source of material to begin with for each of the three topics in this report. Many of the pages in the ADA site are subdivided so that important information about special topics can be found quickly. Information from this site will be vital for the Overview section of the report, as well as for some of the basic facts for other portions of the report.
  • American Diabetes Association. “Diabetes Information - American Diabetes Association.” 13 Feb 2008 <
  • Center for Disease Control – Division of Diabetes
  • This government-run website has several pages dedicated to prevention information. The site includes information about who is at risk, the warning signs, pre-diabetes, and other information that will be useful throughout the report.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “CDC Division of Diabetes.” CDC's Diabetes Program. 7 Apr 2008 <

Research Remaining

  • Medline Plus Database
  • At the time of this report, I have not fully explored the information available on this site. There are several useful links to the basics in prevention, as well as links to news articles on both prevention and treatments. Further research is needed to determine what is actually usable for the report.
  • National Institute of Health. “MedlinePlus: Diabetes.” Medline Plus. 7 Apr 2008 <

Current Treatments Research

Research Consulted

  • MD Consult: Diabetes
  • This source did not have very many details on the most commonly prescribed medicines, stating that “your doctor will decide which medicine is right for you.” Regardless, within this site is a listing of 6 types of medications that doctors may prescribe. This listing has been very valuable, and upcoming interviews will give the necessary amount of detail.
  • “Diabetes, New Treatments for: Patient Education.” MD Consult 2004. 13 Feb 2008 <
  • New England Journal of Medicine: Intensive Diabetes Treatment and Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes
  • This source was a mixed bag. There were several results in the discussion of the intensive treatment that will be useful in the report. One of the most important pieces of information that came from this article was that intensive diabetes management reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease. However, the article did spend much of its time discussing the setup of the trials and experiments than the results themselves.
  • “Intensive Diabetes Treatment and Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes.” New England Journal of Medicine 22 Dec 2005. 13 Feb 2008 <
  • Postgraduate Medicine: Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes
  • This article was not very useful as a whole. Since the article was written for professionals in health care, much of the language is technical. There are some small portions that might be useful, but as a whole, this article will not be useful for the purposes of the report.
  • Bell, David S. H., and Kathleen L. Wyne. “Treatment of type 2 diabetes...” Postgraduate Medicine 119.2 (2006): 15-20.

Research Remaining

  • AmericanAcademy of Family Physicians: Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
  • This article looks promising because it goes through the progression of diabetes as well as the medications that are often given for diabetics. It has more information than the MD Consult site had regarding the specific drugs, so it should prove useful.
  • Joe A. Florence, and Bryan F. Yeager. “Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.” AmericanAcademy of Family Physicians 15 May 1999. 13 Feb 2008 <
  • Interview with Ruby Varghese
  • This interview will be extremely important to the report. Mrs. Varghese is a pharmacist at a major hospital in Houston. She is familiar with many of the current prescriptions for diabetics, and her input will allow me to do some follow up research on these medications and treatments. The interview has been set up for this week.
  • Follow up research
  • BecauseI have many finer points to research for medications (side effects, etc.), e more research must be done on these topics. Specific sources have not yet been found, so some work still remains.

New/Experimental Treatments Research

Research Consulted

  • Medletter Associates: Diabetes
  • This article has excellent news regarding the transplant of insulin producing islet cells into diabetics. However, the article is extremely short, and is best used for one short fact or an introductory line in this section of the report.
  • “The World's First Successful Islet Cell Transplant From a Living Donor...” Diabetes (0-929661-16-8) (2006): 49.

Science News: Diabetes drug shows new potential

  • This article is also far too short to prove useful. There are fewer than 20 sentences in the article, and the article provides little detail about the promise of a Type 2 drug that could see use for Type I diabetics.
  • Seppa, Nathan. “Diabetes drug shows new potential..” Science News 172.23 (2007): 365.

Research Remaining

  • Science News: Cell transplants make gains versus diabetes
  • This article is looks to hold good news. However, it is also a short article. It is unlikely that much useful information can be found in this article
  • Seppa, Nathan. “Cell transplants make gains versus diabetes...” Science News 167.10 (2005): 157.
  • Interview with Ruby Varghese
  • Once again, this interview will be extremely important to the report. Mrs. Varghese has had exposure to the newest forms of medications for diabetics. Working at one of the largest hospitals in Houston has given her much experience with all kinds of patients, so this should be a good place to start finding more sources for this part of the report.

Conclusions

Assessment of Work Completed

Progress on the prevention work has been going well. Much of the needed information on prevention is already present on the sources listed earlier in the report. It is simply a matter of compiling them and arranging them into the best logical order for the report.

Progress on the current methods of treatment and the newer methods of treatment is not going quite as well. Part of the reason for this is that many of the sites that do have information on these treatments have little more than a few paragraphs of information, many of which would be covered elsewhere in the report. Other sources are simply too short to be usable. These sources mention ideas and say that they could lead to some new form of treatment, but the sources do not go into detail on the topic.

To resolve the problem with obtaining useful information on treatments, I will be interviewing Ruby Varghese within the next week. Mrs. Varghese has had many years of experience and is required to be familiar with the most common medications for diabetics. Because pharmacists are also required to take continuing education to maintain their licenses, they also have some basic knowledge on the most current drugs that are used for treatment of diabetes. This interview should be a very good point to continue research on the methods of treatment for diabetes.

Updated Outline

The outline for the report has been slightly modified from the research done. The initial outline was essentially a rough sketch of the topics that needed to be covered. This outline has included some of the areas that need more detailed sections devoted to them. Ideally, there would be no more than 3 paragraphs for each section of the outline below. The exact wording of the subjects and sections may change in the final report, but the general format below will be followed closely.

  1. Report summary
  2. Introduction
  3. Why diabetes is important
  4. Uses of the report
  1. Overview
  2. What is diabetes?
  3. Type I diabetes
  4. Type II diabetes
  5. Pre-diabetes
  6. Complications of diabetes
  7. Who is at risk
  8. General risk factors (modifiable factors)
  9. Risk factors due to ethnicity and other non-modifiablefactors
  10. Prevention
  11. Details about modifiable risk factors
  12. Recommended changes to reduce chance of development of diabetes
  13. Exercise
  14. Healthy Eating
  15. Current methods of treatment
  16. Drugs used currently
  17. Most effective medicinal treatments currently available
  18. New methods of treatment
  19. Newer drugs or promising experimental results
  20. Transplants and related research
  21. Conclusion

Progress On Major Report--1