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Dr. Shehzad Haq of Central Mississippi Endocrinology.

Experts in managing the delicate balance of the body's chemistry must be involved at the first stages of diabetes care, says Dr. Shehzad Haq of Central Mississippi Endocrinology.

"The internists and primary care physicians do a great job. They're the gatekeepers to pick up on this disease," said Haq, who joined the Central Mississippi Medical Center staff in August. "But from there we cannot just say, 'We'll see how things go down the road,' because the time frame between diagnosis and end-stage organ damage is not multiple years. We've got to be aggressive from day one focusing in on tight control."

More than ever, Haq said, primary care physicians are seeing the need to involve specialists sooner rather than later in the course of patient care. Early intervention can avoid complications for patients, and also help stem the national burden of healthcare costs created by those complications.

The need for specialized care also increases, Haq said, as the range of pharmaceutical products for diabetes management becomes ever broader and more sophisticated.

America's growing diabetes epidemic — nowhere more acute than in Mississippi — has overwhelmed the resources of primary-care physicians. But at the same time, the number of practicing endocrinologists stands at 12 percent fewer than the number needed across the nation, according to statements from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).

In Mississippi, where the diabetes prevalence rate is 11 percent, the AACE's specialist directory lists only 25 endocrinologists across the state.

"There is a significant shortage of endocrinologists to begin with, and certainly considering it's a state with the top rating in obesity and diabetes," said Haq, who chose his specialty with an awareness that the fight against diabetes-related complications needs more soldiers worldwide.

"More awareness has got around now that we need to address it hard," he said. "It's not that diabetes is new to the medical field, but now people have recognized that when we talk of improving healthcare costs, we must go to the grassroots of what is causing the problem."

In his Jackson-area practice, Haq's plans include hosting frequent patient seminars, as he did during his recent fellowship at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, W.Va.

"I find that when you're in an informal circumstance with these patients, they have so many questions, and in a group setting they feel more comfortable asking them," he said. "It's best when a bunch of those who have the same disease sit together, because each question is helping everyone. It's like 100 minds putting together 100 questions, and each mind receives 100 answers."

In dealing with individual patients, Haq said he relies upon the assistance of dieticians and certified diabetes educators to fill in the gaps of what his tight schedule allows.

"With the limited number of endocrinologists per capita, there's a limit to what you can offer in one visit," he said. "I don't have time to go over every detail, so they help a lot in that part."

Haq, who completed his medical degree and initial internships in Pakistan, served as an intern and completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He has since served as a consultant physician at Mersey Community Hospital-Latrobe in Tasmania, Australia, and as a consultant physician/director of renal, hypertension and diabetes services at Gisborne Hospital in Gisborne, New Zealand.

He was named one of America's Top Physicians by the Consumer Research Council of America for 2004-05, and is a diplomat with the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is board-certified in internal medicine.


ie.
November 2006

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