He will keynote Salute luncheon
By Alvin A. Reid of the American
Like a detective, Samuel Dagogo-Jack, MD, FRCP is on a constant search for a crafty and silent killer.
This killer is stalking millions of Americans, including more than 2.3 million black victims.
The killer is type 2 diabetes, and Dagogo-Jack is a nationally renowned medical sleuth that is dedicated to slowing this menace.
Dagogo-Jack will share his knowledge on type 2 diabetes and what black Americans must do to ward off this assassin of the body when he delivers the keynote address during the 6th Salute To Excellence in Health Care Scholarship and Awards luncheon on Saturday May 13 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel.
The St. Louis American Foundation is again partnering with the Mound City Medical Forum in presenting the luncheon where two Lifetime Achievers in Health, a Health Care Advocacy Organization of the Year and 12 Excellence in Health Care awardees will be honored.
The honorees and more than 500 guests will be educated and entertained by Dagogo-Jack’s non-stop hunt for a nemesis that targets black Americans at a higher rate than whites.
The Centers for Disease Control calls type 2 diabetes “the epidemic of our time,” but Dagogo-Jack often finds that its victims often do not know they are in the killer’s site.
“Despite the prevalence and devastating effects of type 2 diabetes, studies have shown that nearly 50 percent of African-Americans are not aware of the problem, which is potentially fatal,” he said.
“Inadequately treated diabetes is dangerous because of the potential risk of long-term consequences.” Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death among Black people. It’s estimated that more than 2.3 million African-Americans currently have type 2 diabetes.
African-Americans are especially prone to developing type 2 diabetes, which differs from type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas doesn’t produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas produces only small amounts of insulin or the body rejects the insulin that is produced. A body requires insulin for blood sugar to enter cells and be stored or converted to energy. When cells do not respond properly to insulin and fail to absorb the blood sugar, it then builds up in the blood stream, resulting in the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
Dagogo-Jack is a professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and associate director of general clinical research at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.
In February, he and fellow researcher Leonard E. Egede M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, released a study concluding that “critical changes are needed in the delivery of care for patients with type 2 diabetes to improve the overall quality of diabetes care and reduce its disproportionate burden on ethnic minorities.”
The doctors suggest that health providers and health systems must shift from acute care to a chronic disease care model, involve the patient in the day-to-day management of the disease, and include collaboration between the patient and doctor on how to achieve care goals.
“Studies have shown that when blood glucose levels are controlled to a similar degree (below 6.5 percent) among different racial and ethnic groups, complication rates from diabetes are also similar.
“Sometimes insulin is needed in addition to oral medication to achieve blood glucose control; however, because diabetes remains undiagnosed much longer in minority populations than whites, clinicians may want to consider early use of combination drug therapy for minority patients,” he writes in the study.
Dr. Dagogo-Jack is an internationally respected diabetes researcher and physician.
He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Endocrinology and Metabolism.
A native of Nigeria, Dagogo-Jack graduated in 1978 with a medical degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He completed an internship at the University of Ibadan before serving his residency in internal medicine at The Royal Victoria Infirmary, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England where he was also Registrar in Medicine (Endocrinology).
This will not be Dagogo-Jack’s first visit to St. Louis. He was a fellow (Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism) at the Washington University School of Medicine in 1998.
His special interests include diabetes pathophysiology, complications and prevention
He has been elected to fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal Society of Medicine and the American College of Physicians. He also served as a chapter president of the American Diabetes Association (St Louis Chapter, 1998-2000), was subspecialty chair (Endocrinology Section) of the Central Society for Clinical Research. Dagogo-Jack is a member of the Endocrine Society and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
