ISC: Diabetes Mellitus

School of Medicine

Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide pandemic. One in twelve United States adults now suffers from the disease, and in the near future this number will likely increase to one in ten. Physicians in any specialty/subspecialty can expect to care for patients with diabetes, especially because patients with diabetes have higher rates of hospitalization, surgical complications, cardiovascular disease, infection and other morbidities. Therefore most, if not all, physicians in training should be competent in basic treatment of diabetes in the inpatient and outpatient settings and understand the current and future areas of research and medical practice as related to diabetes. This course is designed to teach our medical students how to care for the patient with diabetes mellitus, regardless of their specialty of choice, as well as to understand the basic science, social effects, bearing on public health, and human impact of this disease. Additionally, biomedical research in diabetes involves many fields of research such as cardiovascular disease, physiology, molecular biology, genetic medicine, cell biology, and neuroendocrinology. As a medical center whose goal is to train future researchers and leaders in medicine, Vanderbilt must offer experiences in diabetes patient care and research to its students. This immersion will include components of clinical training as well as an academic project exploring the limits of current scientific knowledge about diabetes care and treatment.