Initiative takes on Valley's dire diabetes picture

EDINBURG — Bruce Taylor has two daughters with a high risk of diabetes.

Taylor has the chronic condition, which if not controlled is life-threatening. It runs in his wife’s family, as well.

“The best inheritance that I am going to leave to my daughters is a support system,” said Taylor, director of Government Strategy and Relations at the Diabetes Care office of Roche Diagnostics. The company’s research helps develop medical diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.

Diabetes takes a disproportionate toll on the Rio Grande Valley, where 11 percent, or more than 70,000 residents, have the condition, according to the Diabetes Care Project, which recently released statistics for the local community based on the U.S. Diabetes Index. The nationwide average is 8 percent.

“Eleven percent of the population with diabetes is a stunning number,” said Gary Puckerin, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum, a nonprofit that uses research to aid health initiatives for minorities.

To take on the problem, Puckerin and Taylor have teamed up with the Diabetes Care Project to form the South Texas Diabetes Initiative. The community-driven effort aims to improve patient health outcomes and lower costs for the entire health system through appropriate diabetes management across the region.

Two founding members in that effort — the University of Texas-Pan American and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance — along with Puckerin and Taylor took part in a diabetes summit last week in Edinburg. Attendees of the meeting at UTPA laid out the problem and brainstormed solutions.

Exacerbating the high rate of diabetes, 25 percent of Valley residents — compared with 11 percent nationwide — lack health insurance, Taylor said.

The uninsured “should be a significant concern,” Puckerin said, “because in our country, the only way you can shop for health care (is that) you’ve got to have insurance, because you can’t pay for it on your own.”

Following clinical guidelines, managing diabetes — including prescriptions — costs about $12,000 per year, he said.

For the uninsured patients who can’t afford — and thus forego — proper treatment, “blood glucose is slowly going up and then they are going to have an acute event,” Puckerin said. That could be hospitalization, amputation, blindness or even death.

The solution, he said, is for communities — particularly in the Valley — to control the disease.

“We need to understand about the people in the Valley: Why do they have diabetes? Why it is so hard to control it? What’s the appropriate therapy for them?” Puckerin said.

Dr. Maria Alen, adjunct professor at Texas A&M Health Science Center, proposed community-wide education.

“They need to be aware of the disease,” Alen said.

And Belinda Reininger, associate professor at the UT School of Public Health’s Brownsville campus, suggested better communication among researchers, which would keep all parties abreast of the latest developments.

Treating patients in their homes and seeing their lifestyles helps them make the proper adjustments, said Dr. Marcel Twahirwa, director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

Additionally, employers should offer incentives for employees who have diabetes, said Aaron Thorburn, vice president for Shepard & Walton Life Insurance Agency.

Employers should try to find programs or benefits for their employees who have diabetes, Thorburn said. That would keep workers healthier, meaning fewer insurance claims, and “in some degree their premiums will go down.”

Dr. Victor Gonzalez, a McAllen ophthalmologist, recommended that summit attendees move quickly to establish easy targets and focus on programs.

“We don’t want to be here in the next 15 years having the same discussion,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said one thing that will help reduce diabetes in the Valley is to make physical education classes mandatory in schools.

“P.E. is key to a healthy lifestyle,” Gonzalez said.

The group plans to meet again in March.

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Martha L. Hernández covers health, business and general assignments for The Monitor and El Nuevo Heraldo. She can be reached at mlhernandez@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4846.

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