Johns Hopkins White Papers: Diabetes
Review by
David Mendosa
Johns Hopkins White Papers: Diabetes
This is a surprisingly good little book. Written by two professors of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, this “white paper” on diabetes clearly and authoritatively tells it like the current state of diabetes treatment is.
It’s good (I mean the book is good, not necessarily the treatment of diabetes), but I am not saying to buy it. Most people with diabetes would be better advised to buy Gretchen Becker’s The First Year — Type 2 Diabetes or Dr. Alan L. Rubin’s Diabetes for Dummies. But this “white paper” is an excellent summary of the state of the endocrinological art.
I was most impressed with this book’s review of recent journal articles that suggest that many more people with type 2 diabetes would be well advised to start using insulin earlier than they do. So many people have unwarranted concerns about insulin!
The other part of this book that I was especially happy to see was a list of the top 10 hospitals for endocrinology. It is reprinted from an article in U.S. News & World Report on July 12, 2004, which I haven’t seen. The rankings are admittedly somewhat subjective, and are probably included because Johns Hopkins Hospital ranks so high.
First is no surprise, the Mayo Clinic. Second, is Massachusetts General Hospital, which did surprise me. Then, came Johns Hopkins Hospital, which I know from my own experience back in 1976. I was in attendance to witness an abortion there in a previous life as a family planning officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Fourth, is the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, which probably was responsible for saving my wife’s life when she was there for a month in May 1998 for a complication of diabetes, blood clots. The other six are all around the country, but unfortunately there aren’t any in the top 10 near our new home in Colorado.
This book is a part of the Johns Hopkins Health After 50 series. It’s 61 numbered pages (and a few unnumbered ones) published this year by Medletter Associates for $24.95. ISBN: 1-933087-05-6. The linked website is http://hopkinsafter50.com/html/silos/diabetes/index.php.
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