Thomas Meoño, who joined the CAHI Fellows Network in 2018, is making a positive impact on patients with diabetes, giving them the opportunity to live better and longer lives by reducing the risks associated with the condition.
The results were presented at the 81st National Medical Congress of Costa Rica, held in La Fortuna de San Carlos. The project that Dr. Meoño has been developing involves public-private alliances, with the participation of the Municipality of Cartago, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), the Dos Pinos company and the University of Costa Rica.
This coordinated effort between different organizations has generated these encouraging results: in an intervention with 71 patients with uncompensated type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, in which educational talks, medical coaching, nutritional control and supervised physical exercise were combined for 12 weeks, 83% of the people achieved a reduction of at least 1% in their Glycosylated Hemoglobin compared to their initial levels.
The relevance of this impact is life or death for these patients. This translates, as known from the UKPDS study (UKDPS, Stratton, 2000: IM, Adler AI, Neil HAW, et. al. BMJ. 1000: 321: 405-412), a decrease of up to 43% in possible amputations, 37% in microvascular complications, 21% in diabetes-associated death and 14% less likely to suffer a heart attack.
In short, the work of a transdisciplinary network of health professionals, with the support of a public-private alliance, facilitates the generation of this positive impact by developing a comprehensive approach to chronic non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. The commitment is to continue with this work to achieve greater impacts in periods between 5 and 10 years, in which the quality of life of patients can increase significantly.
The CAHI Fellows Network continues to make a concrete positive impact on the health of people in Central America, producing best practices and generating replicable knowledge and techniques.
If you would like to know more about this project, exchange perspectives and receive specific information, please write to cahi@cahisalud.org.
