From the President

Abstract

Part of the AADE mission is to ensure the delivery of quality diabetes education and care to persons with diabetes.We also have a goal to serve as the arbiter of quality diabetes education and as the representative organization of those who deliver it. These are meaningful and important aspirations but what, specifically, are we doing to achieve them?One strategy in the ongoing process to implement our mission and goals is to develop and publish position statements. Position statements address issues that profoundly affect the practice of our members or the lives of those whom we educate, and present the association's stand on particular issues. A position statement represents a national viewpoint and is published only after a great deal of thought, work, and input from AADE members. While not standards of practice, position statements can be used by diabetes educators who are trying to implement practice changes.The impetus for a position statement may originate with a single member, a committee, a change in practice, a new development affecting practice, or a criticism of practice. The idea, with its rationale, is presented to the AADE Board of Directors. If the board, which is multidisciplinary and geographically representative, determines that the issue has significant and national implications, development of a position statement is approved. The president then appoints a task force to develop the statement. Members of the task force are chosen for their expertise in the specific area; in addition, they are drawn from a variety of disciplines, geographical areas, and practice settings. The task force explores all aspects of the issue and drafts a position statement for submission to the board for approval. Revisions may be required. When finally approved, the position statement is published in T7ie Diabetes Educator and becomes the official stand of our organization. Members and others can then use the position statement to support their own individual positions and, because of the developmental process of a position statement, feel comfortable that it represents a consensus from a varied and national perspective. AADE position statements have dealt with education for insulin infusion pump users,' the importance of universal precautions when performing glucose monitoring,2 and the effective use of data from self-monitoring of blood glucose.3 AADE members are currently working on two position statements. One deals with the education of patients regarding the prevention of contamination from devices used in diabetes management. The impetus for this position statement was a letter to the editor in the Journal o/~the Antc~riwtn Medical A.s.socicttiutts that pointed out the lack of directives in the diabetes education lit-erature for instructing patients in universal precautions that should be taken when using &dquo;diabetic devices.&dquo; The impetus for the second came from several committees and will deal with the importance of third-party reimbursement for the education of persons with special needs (such as ...

Culturally Competent Clinical Care for Older Sexual Minority Adults: A Scoping Review of the Literature

“…We first assessed the scope of available sources in the following order: 1) Position statement (Supplementary Table 2); 2) Empirical study (e.g., evaluation of interventions to improve CCCC) (Supplementary Table 3); 3) Non-empirical research (e.g., commentary that does not include primary data) (Supplementary Table 4). We prioritized position statements because they are based on experts (often spanning a range of disciplines, geographies, and practice settings) synthesizing all available evidence (Haas, 1990), followed by empirical studies because of the primary data available to illustrate what worked (or did not) regarding the provision of CCCC, followed by non-empirical research that can-in some circumstances-be based on opinion rather than a synthesis of evidence or data. Based on PRISM-ScR guidance for data abstraction (Tricco et al, 2018), we reviewed key aspects of the studies (e.g., outcomes, study design).…”