What a wonderful opportunity to attend our national American Association of Diabetes Educators Meeting in Houston. It was a time to network and learn over 4 – 5 days for the 3,000 attendees.
On Thursday, August 8, 40 leaders attended the AADE State Coordinating Body (CB) Leader Meeting. We heard from Kevin Schaefer, AADE Online Community Program Manager about the website update. Liz Catalano, Member & Volunteer Relations Manager asked questions about our CB operations and then inquired how AADE staff can help our CBs. In addition, we met Steve Rauchenecker, Director of Member and Volunteer Services. Kellie Antinori-Lent, 2020 AADE President discussed the continued roll out of AADE Project Vision.
Thursday evening, approximately 40 displays were set up representing Coordinating Bodies (CB), Local Networking Groups (LNG) and Communities of Interest (COI) at the CB/COI Networking Event. We enjoyed networking, learning, and sharing appetizers with those in attendance. Thank you to all the AADE staff and volunteers that helped to make the event a success.
Chuck Macfarlane, AADE CEO, welcomed attendees to the conference and we then heard Karen Kemmis, 2019 AADE President, outline Project Vision: Shaping the Future of our Specialty. Our six pillars of Project Vision include:
- Integrating the Clinical & Self-Management Aspects of Care
- Addressing the Full Scope of Cardio-metabolic Conditions
- Promoting & Integrating Behavioral Health
- Leveraging Technology for Better Outcomes
- Optimizing Diabetes Care Delivery for the Quadruple Aim
- Promoting Person-Centered Care
Karen continued with presenting the next few slides about CHANGE . . . . Change that helps us reimagine our role . . . Change that positively impacts those we serve . . . Change that repositions our specialty and reflects what we actually do. She then announced the new title of our profession: “Diabetes Care & Education Specialist”.
At the AADE Business meeting, we heard further detail about the in-depth process that took place surrounding the title change, including member surveys, stakeholder partners/organizations surveys and focus groups, data collected, and the overwhelming preference for the title which will help to reposition our specialty.
On August 19, you received an email from Karen with background information about the repositioning of our specialty process and information regarding a webinar to further help all members understand the background and upcoming changes. The recorded webinar is now available at this link.
What a great opportunity for all of us – we, the volunteer leaders of AADE, have the privilege and responsibility to help “Shape the Future of our Specialty” as we move forward as Diabetes Care & Education Specialists.