The BetterDiabetesCare website focuses on how to improve the way diabetes care is delivered, rather than on the clinical care itself. Now, when health care professionals tackle this challenge, Continuing Education (CE) and Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits are available from the Indiana University School of Medicine.BetterDiabetesCare emphasizes the need for changes to systems of care and ways to implement them. It is a practical resource developed to help a range of health care professionals nationwide make a difference in the way diabetes is prevented and treated. Steps, models, guidelines, resources, and tools for the process of making and evaluating effective systems changes are provided on the site.

To obtain CE/CME credit, health care professionals choose a topic of interest, set their own objectives, and complete a project as they use the website’s tools and materials to assess their current situation, determine priorities for system changes, plan strategies to implement changes, take action, and evaluate results. CE credits are awarded for reflective learning, a self-directed process that occurs in response to key issues or problems that arise in health care practice. For a nominal fee of $10, users of the website will receive a certificate documenting up to 10 Category 1 CE/CME credits per project.

NDEP encourages you to forward this announcement to your partners, local community health organizations, professional associations, and every health care professional you know!

To start your CE/CME program today, click here.

For African Americans, family reunions offer a chance to bond with relatives, learn about their heritage, share recipes, and celebrate with their whole family. When learning about their heritage, it is also important to find out if diabetes runs in the family. Having a family history of diabetes increases a person’s risk for developing the disease. NDEP is currently promoting a new feature article entitled, “Ten Ways to Shape Up Your Family Reunion to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes*” to African American print and online media through the Small Steps. Big Rewards. Prevent Type 2 Diabetes. campaign.

The list includes 10 practical tips for African Americans at risk for type 2 diabetes and their families on losing weight by making healthy food choices and incorporating more physical activity into family reunions. These tips help African Americans and their families move a step closer toward lowering their risk for type 2 diabetes, improving their overall health, and the health of their families. For more ways to lower the risk for type 2 diabetes in African Americans, click here*.

In July, NDEP will promote a new feature article entitled, “Eat Fruits and Veggies to Lose Weight & Lower Your Risk for Type 2 Diabetes*” to general print and online publications to highlight easy and inexpensive ways to increase the number of fruits and vegetables people at risk for type 2 diabetes eat as they take small steps to lose weight and lower their diabetes risk. For more ways to lower the risk for type 2 diabetes, click here*.

In August, NDEP will promote a new feature article to highlight the Move It! And Reduce Your Risk for Diabetes School Kit* to American Indian and Alaska Native print and online media and school personnel. The article will include information about the Move It! kit’s contents, positive feedback from school personnel and students who have adapted the kit, and ideas for how school personnel, administrators, and students can incorporate the kit into their schools. For more information about lowering the risk for diabetes in children and adolescents, click here*.

NDEP will also promote Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: A Guide for School Personnel* in August, a comprehensive guide designed to empower school personnel, parents, and students to create a safe learning environment and equal access to educational opportunities for all children with diabetes. For more information about diabetes in children and adolescents, click here.

In each issue of News & Notes look for NDEP promotional tools that are ready for you to personalize, customize, and distribute.

• Take our feature articles, press releases, and public service announcements, and add your organization’s logo*.

  Add your organization’s name and mission and talk about how you and NDEP are working together.

• Add your contact information to a feature article.

• Then submit the ad and/or article to your local paper.

By using our promotional tools, everybody wins. Your community newspaper receives a story with important health information for its readers, your organization receives good publicity, and you help NDEP continue to be the nation’s No. 1 resource for free information and materials on diabetes control and prevention. Each issue of News & Notes features tools that tie into the following month’s promotions and can help us promote NDEP together.

During Asian Pacific Heritage Month in May, NDEP raised awareness of the impact of diabetes in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and the availability of free in-language resources through NDEP. Two new podcasts were released, which focused on the seriousness of diabetes in these populations, the importance of follow-up with the health care team, the role of diet and physical activity, and a message of hope that diabetes can be controlled and prevented or delayed. Rising Tide of Diabetes Among Asian Americans includes an interview with a Cambodian American woman living with diabetes, and Rising Tide of Diabetes Among Pacific Islanders includes an interview with a Tongan/Samoan American woman whose family has been deeply affected by the disease. In addition, a link to NDEP’s Asian and Pacific Islander publications* was provided in each podcast.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Healthbeat, a service that provides daily health promotion and disease prevention tips in audio and text formats, will feature 59-second audio files on these podcasts – further increasing NDEP’s outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

You can use these podcasts to promote NDEP’s resources for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in your community. Both podcasts include information for both community organizations and the people they reach. To download these podcasts in their entirety or to link to them as part of your continued outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, click here.

One way to work with NDEP is by linking to any of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) diabetes podcasts on your organization’s website. Podcasts are a way to get audio and video files over the Internet through webpages designed to maintain a special syndication list of available items and promote new content. These special lists are called Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds, an easy method for receiving the latest news and information that’s important to you. With RSS feeds, you can avoid the conventional methods of browsing or searching for information on numerous websites.

Several NDEP partners have worked with NDEP by linking to CDC’s diabetes podcasts on their websites. For example, Mother Love: Diabetes is Not Your Destiny, a podcast featuring Mother Love, co-host of dLifeTV, motivational speaker, and humorist, was linked by Project Success, a grantee of the Utah Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, to highlight how to manage type 2 diabetes. Project Success also used funding to bring Mother Love to their inaugural Northern Utah Minority Health Symposium and Fair. The podcast provided powerful, motivating messages to help people with diabetes take control of their disease by realizing that type 2 diabetes and its complications do not have to be their destiny. During the podcast, Mother Love also promoted NDEP’s free materials and resources on managing diabetes. NDEP encourages you to link to Mother Love: Diabetes is Not Your Destiny as well as other CDC diabetes podcasts on your website. You can also link to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases’ podcasts by clicking here.

Here are two ways to link CDC’s diabetes podcasts to your organization’s website:

1. Simply copy, paste, and repost the podcast link. When you provide a link on your website, podcasts can be sampled without a subscription to assist users who are unfamiliar with how podcasts work. Provide a link to the podcast audio file in an RSS feed. Since podcasts are distinguished from other digital media formats by their ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an RSS feed is ideal. Before using an RSS feed, first choose an RSS reader, available for download from the Internet. Each reader has a slightly different way of adding a new feed. Follow the directions for your reader but in most cases, you can click on the link or the small “XML” button near the desired feed. Next, you will see a page displaying XML code. From your web browser's address bar, copy the URL. Paste that URL into the “Add New Channel” or “Add New Feed” section of the reader. The RSS feed will start to display and regularly update the headlines for subscribers.
2. Provide a link to the podcast audio file in an RSS feed. Since podcasts are distinguished from other digital media formats by their ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an RSS feed is ideal. Before using an RSS feed, first choose an RSS reader, available for download from the Internet. Each reader has a slightly different way of adding a new feed. Follow the directions for your reader but in most cases, you can click on the link or the small “XML” button near the desired feed. Next, you will see a page displaying XML code. From your web browser's address bar, copy the URL. Paste that URL into the “Add New Channel” or “Add New Feed” section of the reader. The RSS feed will start to display and regularly update the headlines for subscribers.

Look for the NDEP exhibit at these upcoming conferences:

• American Diabetes Association
  June 6-10, 2008; San Francisco, CA
  NDEP will also present a session here on Friday, June 6, at 4 p.m.
  
• The Endocrine Society
  June 15-18, 2008; San Francisco, CA
  
• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
  June 26-30, 2008; Washington, DC
  NDEP will also present a session here on Sunday, June 29, at 11 a.m.
• American Association of Diabetes Educators
  August 6-9, 2008; Washington, DC
  NDEP will present a session here on Saturday, August 9, at 2 p.m.