In February 2003, the Georgia Hospital Association formed the Diabetes Special Interest Group (“D-SIG”) which brings together a multidisciplinary medical team that has work towards improving the care of the individual with diabetes.

Chair: Curtiss Cook , Mayo Clinic Arizona ;

Vice-Chairs: Lawrence Stockton , Pharmacist, Mountain Lakes Medical Center

Marianne Baird , RN , Saint. Joseph 's of Atlanta .

Secretary: Lisa Kiblinger , RN , CDE

Active members of the DSIG: Endocrinologists: Dr. Bruce Bode , Dr. Paul Davidson , Dr. Dennis Steed , Dr. Robert Osburne ; Pediatric Physicians: Dr. Frank Bowyer , Dr. Inger Hansen , Dr. Andrew Muir

Certified Diabetes Educators - Jean Elliott , Linda Lowey , Jane Threlfall , Mary Ransbotham

RNs – Brenda Brown, Beverly Dodd, Kim Roberts

Business partners: Judy Blanton, Jeff Durthaler, Jennifer Frieden, Claire Marshall

D-SIG’s mission is "To Monitor, Evaluate, and Enhance the Diabetes Care in the State of Georgia.” To avoid duplication of effort, (the GA Department of Human Resources Georgia Diabetes Coalition focuses on the community aspects of care,) concentration is on the hospitalized individual with hyperglycemia.

Our Aims:

Aim 1: Continually assess care of the person with hyperglycemia as it relates to impact, patient education, staff continuing education, protocols, and quality improvement activities.

Aim 2: Evaluate in-patient hyperglycemia care practices within Georgia ’s health care organizations.

Aim 3: Detect regional patterns within the in-patient hyperglycemia care to determine potential action.

Aim 4: Improve the quality of in-patient glycemic control care within the state of Georgia

The D-SIG has developed a toolkit which contains information on clinical sample guidelines, getting starting with implementing tight glycemic control, education and performance improvement tools, and resources.

Please do not be overwhelmed by the information on this website. Hospitals across the nation are sifting through the national research and evidence based criteria and are reviewing the material on this website, wordsmithing according to their culture of safety. To fully understand BG control takes time.  Familiarizing novices with the info is a daunting challenge…which is well reflected in the depth of information we provide.

The Clinical Sample Guidelines are reviewed bi-annually and/or revised as needed to keep the information current.

October, 2007