Diabetes Dateline
Summer 2006

NIDDK Briefs

More information and a free copy of the NKDEP Kidney Connection Guide are available at www.nkdep.nih.gov/familyreunion.

NIDDK Encourages Health Talk at Family Reunions

Health issues are family issues, which is why family reunions present the perfect opportunity to bring them up, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

To raise awareness and promote family discussion of diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease—three conditions that disproportionately affect African Americans—the NIDDK’s National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) has created the Kidney Connection Guide. This free resource suggests ways to begin health discussions with family members and includes fact sheets and information about how to create a family health history with the Surgeon General’s online tool, “My Family Health Portrait,” www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/download.html.

Blonde Named New Chair of NDEP

Lawrence Blonde, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.E., director of the Ochsner Diabetes Clinical Research Unit at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, is the new chairman of the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP). A longtime member of the NDEP committees and workgroups, Blonde succeeds James R. Gavin III, M.D., Ph.D., who helped launch the NDEP’s first-ever multicultural diabetes prevention campaign.

As the NDEP chairman, Blonde is charged with leading the organization’s executive and steering committees, and working with federal, state, and local partners to improve diabetes prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Diabetes Dateline

Diabetes Dateline is published four times a year by the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC). The newsletter features news about diabetes special events, patient and professional meetings, and new publications available from the NDIC and other related organizations.

Subscriptions are free but available only to health professionals. Send subscription inquiries to: National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, 1 Information Way, Bethesda, MD 20892–3560. This publication is also available online at www.diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/about/newsletter.htm.

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NIH Publication No. 06–4562
September 2006