Patients with insulin-treated diabetes need to be actively involved in their own treatment. We have found that measurement of blood rather than urinary glucose by our diabetic patients leads to greater understanding and enthusiasm as well as to better control of blood glucose. Home blood glucose monitoring is complementary to rather than a substitute for measurement of hemoglobin A1. The latter provides an objective index of long-term control that is of more use to the doctor than to the patient. The former gives the patient information that enables him to master his own disease from day to day.

Blood Glucose↗

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Diseases the doctor (or autoanalyser) says you have got.

Much of modern medical practice involves treating patients with asymptomatic conditions or risk factors which I call 'diseases the doctors says you've got'. These generally asymptomatic conditions, which are usually discovered by screening, include hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, many cases of type 2 diabetes and the post-menopausal state. My argument is that many doctors do not have the interest or inclination to follow such patients. However, persuading them to take their tablets or modify their diets or lifestyles is arguably more difficult than in the 'proper' diseases on which physicians spend most of their training. I suggest that the only way of doing this is to educate and enthuse the patients and find a way to make them as interesting as the cases of the rare diseases we all find so fascinating.

Autoanalysis↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Frederick Pavy (1829-1911)--the last of the physician chemists. The FitzPatrick Lecture 1996.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Chemistry↗