Category Archives: Endocrinology

Cone physician in Rockingham Co. is top national lifestyle doc in fight against diabetes – Greensboro News & Record

REIDSVILLE Local endocrinologist Gebreselassie (Gebre) Nida has recently been recognized as a national leader in treatment of diabetes and promotion of healthy lifestyles.

The prestigious medical report card, the Marquis Whos Who, included Nida in its recent directory of top physicians, according to Cone Health officials.

Nida practices at Cone Healths Reidsville Endocrinology Associates.

While Nida is an accomplished endocrinology and diabetes physician, he is becoming known as an expert in the growing field of lifestyle medicine, according to Cone spokesman Doug Allred.

A marathon runner who practices a health lifestyle himself, Nida is passionate about preventing and reversing Type 2 diabetes and many lifestyle-related chronic diseases, Allred said in a news release.

Lifestyle medicine uses proven methods to make changes in diet, exercise and stress management to improve health. Much of the system centers on removing the root causes of chronic diseases, such as ultra-processed foods and drinks, from the diet.

Nidas vision is to expand this effective and better way of healing, Allred said in the release.

He credits his leaders and team members for the success of the Lifestyle Medicine Steering Committee at Cone Health.

Nida serves as a board member for Annie Penn Hospital Foundation and is the lead physician for the Rockingham County Diabetes Task Force. He leads and contributes to the Greensboro Chapter of Walk with a Doc.

A native of rural Ethiopia, Nida grew up tending animals in rugged conditions.

He raised cattle and sheep in an area without electricity and running water.

And because his father valued education, Nida was allowed to attend an elementary school he reached by walking one hour each way.

By age 12, Nida left home to pursue more specialized education and eventually made it to Addis Ababa University where he earned medical degree in 1999.

Soon after, Nida and his wife, Ethiopia Desta, immigrated to the United States where he pursued postgraduate studies, a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at Wayne State University in Michigan.

Nida joined Cone Health in 2012 where he recently added the new specialty Lifestyle Medicine with a new board certification from American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

An outdoors enthusiast, Nida has competed in 32 marathons, including five Boston Marathon races, and three major world marathons with a personal best time of 2:47:09 at age 48.

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Cone physician in Rockingham Co. is top national lifestyle doc in fight against diabetes - Greensboro News & Record

Integrating Precision Medicine for Obesity into Type 2 Diabetes Management: A Comprehensive Overview from Past to … – Physician’s Weekly

The following is a summary of Precision medicine of obesity as an integral part of type 2 diabetes management past, present, and future, published in the December 2023 issue of Diabetes & Endocrinology by Szczerbinski, et al.

Several metabolic problems may be ascribed to obesity, which is a condition that is both difficult and varied. One of these metabolic problems is type 2 diabetes. Many people do not achieve lasting weight loss or improvements in metabolic health as a consequence of the fact that the treatment options that are now accessible for obesity are insufficient for some individuals.

It contributed to the fact that many people do not achieve persistent weight loss. The emphasis of this review is on metabolic consequences and the potential implications of these repercussions for personalized therapy of the illness. The study highlighted the developments that have taken place in the field of obesity genetics throughout the last ten years, with a specific focus on major discoveries that have taken place during the preceding five years.

There was also a discussion in this article on the potential role that genetics might have in determining the effectiveness of weight loss programs. Lastly, they provide a vision for the future of precision obesity therapy, which entails the development of an algorithm for the management of several illnesses that are based on obesity and tackles both obesity and the symptoms that accompany it. The algorithm will be used to treat obesity both directly and indirectly. On the other hand, the full realization of its potential and the improvement of metabolic health outcomes would need more research and concerted efforts.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213858723002322

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Integrating Precision Medicine for Obesity into Type 2 Diabetes Management: A Comprehensive Overview from Past to ... - Physician's Weekly

Deciphering Diabetes Heterogeneity: Advancing Toward Precision Medicine in Diabetes Care – Physician’s Weekly

The following is a summary of Understanding diabetes heterogeneity: key steps towards precision medicine in diabetes, published in the December 2023 issue of Diabetes & Endocrinology by Leslie, et al.

Diabetes is a disorder that shows a great deal of heterogeneity. Yet, it can be diagnosed by detecting a single blood-borne metabolite, glucose, regardless of the underlying cause of the ailment. Disease categorization may become complicated, which might impede progress in research and medical treatment even though it is beneficial from a practical standpoint. For a study, researchers sought to discuss the heterogeneity of diabetes and highlight emerging techniques that might make treatment easier.

The approaches included combining three disease models that apply to all types of diabetes. These models are the gradient model, the threshold model, and the palette model, each individually. Multiple mechanisms that are meant to avoid or bypass metabolic dysfunction are responsible for preventing the further worsening of existing diabetes and the eventual appearance of problems associated with diabetes. Once diabetes has been established, these risks are maintained under control.

The effect of any disease risk factor will differ from person to person based on their history, diabetes-related tendencies, and environmental exposures. This means that the impact of any given disease risk factor will vary. Using precision medicine to define the resultant variability within diabetes, both in terms of the risk of complications and the risk of diabetes itself, can enhance health outcomes in the present and provide light on potential paths for innovative treatment in the future.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213858723001596

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Deciphering Diabetes Heterogeneity: Advancing Toward Precision Medicine in Diabetes Care - Physician's Weekly

Telehealth-Only Care Fails to Improve Type 2 Diabetes Outcomes – mHealthIntelligence.com

December 13, 2023 -Type 2 diabetes patients who received endocrinology care through telehealth alone had poor glycemic outcomes compared with those who received in-person or hybrid care, which contrasts with prior research findings, according to a new study.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the study aimed to assess patterns of telehealth use and their impact on glycemic control among adults receiving endocrinology care for type 2 diabetes.

Previous research has shown that telehealth is effective in improving glycemic control, but there has not been enough data on utilization and outcomes linked to routine telehealth care for type 2 diabetes since 2020, especially in the endocrinology setting, the researchers wrote. Thus, they conducted a retrospective cohort study that included adults with type 2 diabetes who had an initial or follow-up visit via telehealth between May 1 and October 31, 2020, in the endocrinology division of a large health system.

The researchers conducted follow-ups with patients through May 2022, assigning them to telehealth-only, in-person, or hybrid care cohorts. They estimated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) change at 12 months within each cohort and the association of factors indicating clinical complexity, such as insulin regimen and cardiovascular and psychological comorbidities, with HbA1c change across cohorts.

Of 11,498 potential type 2 diabetes patients, 3,778 were included in the final cohort. Of the final sample, 1,182 received care via telehealth, 1,049 received in-person care, and 1,547 received hybrid care, that is, both telehealth and in-person care.

Patients in the telehealth-only cohort were younger and more likely to be women and Black than patients in the in-person and hybrid follow-up groups. Further, the telehealth-only group had fewer mean appointments and fewer follow-up HbA1c measurements per year than those in the in-person and hybrid follow-up groups.

There was no significant change in adjusted HbA1c at 12 months among patients in the telehealth-only group, compared with the in-person group, which experienced an HbA1c improvement of 0.37 percent, and the hybrid group, which experienced an improvement of 0.22 percent.

In addition, the researchers observed that patients prescribed basal insulin across all three cohorts had worse adjusted HbA1c changes at 12 months than those not prescribed insulin. However, the estimated difference in HbA1c change between patients prescribed basal insulin and those not prescribed insulin was significant only for the telehealth group at 24 months.

Further, telehealth-only patients with a baseline HbA1c of 8 percent or higher had no significant change in adjusted HbA1c at 12 or 24 months, but patients receiving in-person or hybrid follow-up had significant improvement in adjusted HbA1c at both 12 and 24 months.

Patients with T2D [type 2 diabetes] who receive endocrinology care and have more complex care needs, including those who use insulin or have HbA1c above goal, may not be well served by telemedicine care alone as currently implemented, the researchers concluded.

One reason may be that the strategies to support glycemic improvement deployed during in-person appointments, like self-management education and sharing home blood glucose data, have not been consistently translated to telehealth.

Implementation of approaches to overcome these differences, such as team-based virtual care and technological tools to automate blood glucose data sharing, are needed to ensure all patients receive high-quality diabetes care regardless of care modality, they wrote.

These study findings contrast with previous research, including a study published in early 2022 that revealed that telehealth maintained quality of care and led to better health outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study included 16,588 with type 2 diabetes who received care before or during the pandemic, with 7,581 having a telehealth visit with either a primary care physician or an endocrinologist.

Patients who only received in-person care saw a decline in quality outcomes during the pandemic, but patients receiving care via telehealth achieved similar quality outcomes during the pandemic as they did before.

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Telehealth-Only Care Fails to Improve Type 2 Diabetes Outcomes - mHealthIntelligence.com