Local Residents and Health Care Professionals to Debate Benefit of Blood
Sugar Testing by People with Type 2 Diabetes

OTTAWA, Feb. 16 /CNW Telbec/ - Recent studies about the management of type 2 diabetes are fast becoming a hot topic for people living with diabetes and for the health care professionals who treat them.

In its January 2010 issue, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published two studies, one of these was a Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) report that suggests that routine self-testing of blood sugar levels provides little practical benefit to people with type 2 diabetes who are not using insulin, and that the self-testing may be an inefficient use of health care resources.

New research from CADTH shows that one of the most common means of managing diabetes may not actually be effective in some cases - from neither a clinical nor an economic perspective. The research focuses on the use of test strips to measure the amount of sugar in the blood.

Now patients and local diabetes experts will have a chance to openly debate this evidence at a Café Scientifique event in Halifax on February 18, 2010, at Pier 21, starting at 7 p.m.

Entitled "Blood Sugar Testing: Everybody's Doing It ... Should They?," the café will explore what this research means for people with type 2 diabetes, and the concept that it takes more than testing blood sugar to manage type 2 diabetes.

The speakers will include Dr. Dale Clayton, Medical Director of the Capital District Health Authority Diabetes Centre and an endocrinologist at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre; and Dr. Michael Vallis, a Clinical Psychologist at the Capital District Health Authority Diabetes Centre.

The goal of the event, hosted by CADTH, is to engage the public and heighten awareness of the significant role that research plays in improving the health of people with diabetes. There is no cost to attend this event, parking will be reimbursed, and light refreshments will be served. Register in advance at www.cadth.ca/cafe.

Production of materials has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

For further information: Helen Bobat, Knowledge Exchange, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), Tel: [phone], ext. 1319, [email protected]