Ahmedabad hospital gets IDF recognition for diabetes care

AHMEDABAD: International

Diabetes

Federation (

IDF

) recently recognized a city-based diabetes care and prevention centre – Swasthya Diabetes Care (SDC) – as a centre for excellence and a centre for education for diabetes. The tertiary care centre, will now further intensify its existing efforts to not just create awareness about diabetes but also initiate broad-based efforts for early diagnosis and intervention.

Sharing more details, Dr Mayur Patel, chairman & chief diabetologist, SDC, said, “India has 72.9 million diabetics and stands second in the world in terms of high number of diabetics in here and the number is likely to cross 134.3 million in 2045 if concentrated efforts are not made for curbing the incidence of diabetes. While we have been working towards screening patients for prevalence of diabetes, the same will be done in a more focused manner going forward, to ensure early intervention.”

“Our aim is early diagnosis, early intervention and treatment and in turn, controlled blood sugar. At the same time, we are also trying to create awareness among the younger population to inculcate a healthy lifestyle which includes eating a balanced diet, regular exercise and stress management, among others. This is because an unhealthy lifestyle is the primary cause of diabetes,” added Dr Mayur.

Apart from this, the diabetes care centre is aiming to emerge as a centre of excellence in clinical care, education, research, community health and help poor patients.

In fact, medical experts have been long emphasizing on early interventions primarily because diabetes is a leading cause of various other life-threatening disorders. “Diabetic patients are 2-4 times more likely to get heart disease or stroke. Diabetic patients are 20 times more likely to get amputation of leg and 17 times more likely to get kidney failure compare to non-diabetics,” said Dr Yash Patel, director and consultant diabetologist, SDC.