The Hormone Foundation Develops Innovative Ways to Reach Patients
 The Hormone Foundation Develops Innovative Ways to Reach Patients The Hormone Foundation, the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, develops educational materials and programs for patients and the general public on a variety of endocrine disorders. Two recently-funded projects include a media education program on menopause that includes a retrospective analysis of media coverage on the Women's Health Initiative study and a national study on family caregivers of people with diabetes. The caregiver study results will be used to develop Diabetes Caregiver Central (DCC), a comprehensive Web site dedicated to those providing care to people with diabetes. DCC will be a one-stop source of reliable information for caregivers by providing access to helpful experts and a network for connecting more than 4 million diabetes caregivers in the U.S. In 2009 The Foundation will also continue to build on its extensive, award-winning collection of bilingual patient fact sheets and patient treatment guides. In 2009, the Foundation will be adding nine new topics to the more than 45 topics in its bilingual fact sheet collection. The fact sheets are written at about the 9th grade reading level and designed to provide patients with important information with the goal of improving communication between them and their physicians. The new topics for 2009 include:
Next year, the Foundation also expects to publish five new patient guides. The patient guides are short synthesis of The Endocrine Society's Clinical Guidelines and are designed to encourage patients to partner with their physicians to improve treatment outcomes. Topics for 2009 include:
The Hormone Foundation has also launched a new series of educational DVDs/videos titled, "Living Your Best Life." The first in the series, "Living Your Best Life: Diabetes and Insulin," was completed in June 2008. The DVD features a diverse group of patients with diabetes who share their personal experiences with insulin and glucose monitoring. It also features a diabetes educator explaining the more technical aspects of these, and dispelling many of the myths and fears that discourage people with diabetes from taking insulin. The DVD has been distributed at several medical conferences, including ENDO, the American Association of Diabetes Educators and the American Academy of Family Practice, the Clinical Endocrinology Update (October), and the International Congress in Endocrinology (ICE) in Brazil (November). A web-based version of the DVD is also available on the Hormone Foundation's website (www.hormone.org). Given the positive feedback the Foundation has received from physicians and diabetes educators, the Foundation is developing a proposal for broader distribution and wider promotion of the DVD, and will be developing a proposal for a new DVD on glucose monitoring and highlight how medications, physical activity and nutrition play into this very important aspect of diabetes management. In addition to these patient education programs, The Hormone Foundation held the first annual ENDO Step Challenge at The Endocrine Society's annual meeting, ENDO 08. The event was a huge success with over 2,000 participants. Abbott Laboratories was the winner of the Team Challenge and Mandeep Brar, MD, a fellow from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at Aurora won the grand prize having taken 119,588 steps during ENDO - Congratulations! In 2009, this high-profile, 4-day event will take place at ENDO, June 10-13 in Washington, DC., and will offer an expanded team challenge and more opportunities to feature supporters. All proceeds from The Hormone Foundation's ENDO Step Challenge will go to support public education programs. To become a 2009 Step Challenge supporter or to learn about the Team Challenge contact Anna Meenan at 301-951-2619 or ameenan@endo-society.org. |