While Cord observed the surgery, Daria introduced me to the head of diabetes education at Endocrinology Research Centre. We discussed their care of diabetes. As for other conditions at the Centre, patients come from all over the region to be evaluated and treatment.
Many patients come to the Centre specifically to be evaluated for starting insulin pump therapy or use of CGM. The government now has programs to pay for pumps but patients must still pay for their own infusion sets so most patients with pumps have some wealth.
Other patients come to the Centre for evaluation because they have severe complications that need management (kidney, retinal, or diabetic foot disease) or for disgnosis of MODY or diabetic syndromes.
Patients come to the centre and stay generally for 1-2 weeks. There is no outpatient clinic at the Centre (since it is a specialty center). They provide extensive diabetes education programs to the patients. These are taught by the physicians as they do not have formal diabetes educators or advanced level nurses. They also start or adjust diabetes medications. They use almost entirely the same medications for diabetes (same brands of insulin, sulfonylureas, GLP-1 agonists, etc) but they are purchased directly by the patients (without prescription).
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Later we returned to the lecture hall where Dr. Sturgeon delivered a seminar on management of advanced thyroid cancer. This was sponsored by the Moscow Medical Academy with funding by AstraZeneca. There was a simultaneous interpreter hired for this presentation (she informed Dr. Sturgeon that google translated his slide on FNA biopsy to the words "luxurious shard inspiration". Luckily, Dr. Sturgeon's live translation was far more effective and the seminar was received with great enthusiasm.
At the lecture, Dr . Sturgeon was introduced by Dr. Valentin Fadeyev who is the head of Endocrinology at First Moscow State Medical University, the premier medical training program in Russia. Like Dr. Sturgeon, he is on the editorial board of the journal Thyroid:
There was great interest in the lecture and the multiple questions continued for nearly 45 minutes after it was completed.
We finished the day with excellent seats to watch the opera Boris Godunov at the historic Bolshoi Theatre.
Great post Max! So interesting to read about your time in Russia!
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