Overview

The Education Unit under the direction of Etta Vinik, MA (Ed), provides support and information on diabetes and related disorders to patients, health professionals, and the general public. The Education Unit is also involved in the development of educational tools for clinical use.

For more information on Education Programs please call 757-446-5910.

All classes are taught by Certified Diabetes Educators. Pre-registration is required.

To register for classes please CALL:

• Eileen Althouse, RN, MSN, CDE, Education Program Coordinator, (757) 446-8477  or

• Phyllis Woodson, MS, RD, CDE, Diabetes Nutrition Specialist, (757) 446-5913

 Patient Education

• The Patient Self-Management Education Program at the EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center, recognized by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), offers patients a variety of educational opportunities to help them understand and manage their diabetes. Diabetes self-management continues to be provided by an interdisciplinary team, interacting on a one-on-one basis.

• The Strelitz Diabetes Center offers group classes in addition to one-on-one diabetes patient education, ADA-approved and taught by Certified Diabetes Educators. The group session runs for four consecutive weeks, each session lasting for two hours from 10 a.m. until noon. The series includes basic information on nutrition, exercise, medications, blood sugar monitoring, preventing complications, psychological adjustment to diabetes and how to modify behavior.

• The Education Unit sponsors an Insulin Pump Support Group for patients of all ages with diabetes who are on insulin pumps and to those who are interested in learning about pumps. Family members, spouse and significant others are welcome.

Professional Education

The Education Unit provides a comprehensive program for professional development.

CME-accredited Endocrine Grand Rounds are held weekly in the Cosmopolitan Education Classroom at the Strelitz Diabetes Center. The Education Unit brings together professionals from throughout the medical school and the community to learn from nationally renowned researchers, clinicians and educators. One-on-one interactive roundtable sessions with visiting experts and local researchers and clinicians encourage exchange of ideas and forge bonds for future collaborations.

The Education Unit coordinates the training of foreign fellows who spend an extended period at the Strelitz Diabetes Center learning research techniques and clinical skills to benefit professionals and patients in their country of origin.

Community Education

Community education outreach is also extended through the Strelitz Diabetes Center’s participation at regional health fairs and diabetes screenings. Health fairs provide the opportunity for educational interactions with our team of health-care providers which may include a physician, nurse educators, dietitians and clinical researchers.

SDC also joins forces with other diabetes organizations such as the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, providing blood sugar and neuropathy screenings at their walk-a-thons and bike-a-thons.

To fulfill our educational mission, we provide educational material about diabetes prevention and treatment including food plans for healthy eating, recipes and exercise recommendations.

Research in Health-Related Quality of Life

The Research Unit at the Strelitz Diabetes Center and Neuroendocrine Unit has a special interest in health-related quality of life (QOL) and has focused attention on patients with neuropathy and neuroendocrine tumors, resulting in research in these areas and in the development and validation of two questionnaires

1. Norfolk QOL-DN
2. Norfolk QOL-NET

The questionnaires are available for use by industry for clinical trials from Eastern Virginia Medical School through contact with the authors.