Through its Diabetes Teaching Center, UCSF has a long-standing tradition of assisting those living with diabetes to manage the extraordinary changes in lifestyle that necessarily accompany the disease. In 1977, this comprehensive program to educate individuals with diabetes on all aspects of self-management was launched by Ralph Alexander, MD and Peggy Huang, RN. Twenty-five years later, thousands of type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients from around the world have 'graduated' from our Teaching Center programs, resulting in improved health and better quality of life.

The UCSF Diabetes Teaching Center was one of the first programs in the country to assemble an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, counselors, pharmacists, nutritionists and even dentists to provide patients with a coordinated therapy along with their diabetes education. The Center's programs are distinguished among self-management programs in that they emphasize individualized care -- teaching patients how to recognize their own individual patterns of response, permitting them to make more consistent and appropriate adjustments to their daily regimen of diet, exercise and medication. In fact, decades before the results of the Diabetes Complications and Control Trial (DCCT) were known, the Teaching Center was already promoting the need for intensive blood glucose control to prevent complications -- the study only confirmed the validity of the Teaching Center's historically prescribed methodology.

Throughout the years, the Teaching Center has updated its programs in order to best serve Northern California diabetes patients. For instance, multi-lingual interpreters are available and classes can accommodate patients with specific health challenges including reduced vision and hearing impairment. Coming this year, the Diabetes Teaching Center Online will be launched, taking UCSF into the 21st century and beyond.

For more information on the UCSF Diabetes Teaching Center, contact 415-476-5029.