This summer, thousands of healthcare experts flocked to Baltimore, Maryland to attend the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES) annual conference. Nurses, pharmacists, physicians, social workers and more joined forces at the four-day event to connect, collaborate and understand the latest updates in the world of diabetes.
With 159 sessions, over 100 exhibitors and more than 90 posters, there was no shortage of information on diabetes care, education and technology. With many of our team members attending the conference this year, we worked to simplify the top five takeaways, discussion points and lessons learned from the event.
- Diabetes Management and Technology Go Hand-in-Hand
The main takeaway was clear: diabetes is a personalized disease that requires personalized technology. Several sessions at ADCES 2022 focused on new and upcoming technology resources for patients. The innovation from outpatient closed-loop insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors, smart insulin pens and software for interpreting glucose data will only help patients achieve better time in range while decreasing diabetes-related complications. The future of diabetes tech looks bright.
- Time in Range is Taking Over
Time in Range (TIR), a relatively new metric in the world of diabetes, was highlighted countless times throughout the conference, especially in the session presented by The diaTribe Foundation’s Senior Director Julie K. Heverly and the Cleveland Clinic’s Endocrine Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, CDCES, BC-ADM, FADCES FCCP. It’s becoming evident we need to structure care around increasing the amount of time our patients spend in their target blood sugar range. Everything from meal triad workflows and patient meals to carb counting and dose adjustment should tie back to increasing TIR to improve healing and wellness. In many places, emphasis on time in range is overtaking HbA1c as the primary measure of control due to the lack of specificity indicated by A1c and the broader utilization of continuous glucose monitors.
- Relationships Matter
Diabetes is one of the only chronic conditions where patients are primarily responsible for out-of-hospital care. That’s why education, collaboration and connection are critical. For providers, that means getting to know patients as people, understanding what is important to them and tailoring recommendations, treatments and feedback to where they are in life. As technology partners, we should also apply the same thoughtfulness to health systems, physicians, nurses, pharmacists and more. To combat and fight back against diabetes, we need to be united.
- Communication Will Help Improve Health Literacy
After attending Improving Health Literacy presented by University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy’s Katherine O'Neal, PharmD, MBA, BCACP, CDCES, BC-ADM, AE-C, CLS, FADCES and Advance Care PA’s Director of Nutrition Services, Christina Dauer, MPH, RDN, LDN, CDE it became evident that an essential component of any relationship is effective communication. The show was a stark reminder for health systems and technology partners that the top way to improve the treatment of diabetes is by improving health literacy. And the best way to improve health literacy is with clear communication. Therefore, technology partners must improve communication and education tools to ensure they are speaking in terms clinical partners understand. And caregivers must speak to patients in terms they know, so they can utilize the proper steps, medication, and tools they need to take to care for themselves.
- Innovation is Critical
Bringing together more than 4,000 attendees in one space highlighted just how many great ideas and products are available to people living with diabetes. However, there are still fundamental challenges individuals living with diabetes grapple with every day. As a community, we must continue to innovate, think creatively and build solutions that address these pain points. Innovation can’t happen in a bubble, and continuous collaboration amongst clinicians and technology providers is of the utmost importance to bring the right tools to the bedside.
ADCES continues to be one of the premier events for the diabetes space. There is a wealth of information we could not fit in our recap, so for more information on the show, visit https://adcesmeeting.org/. Thank you again to the event organizers for putting on a great conference. 
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