Barton Attends World Diabetes Congress

Simone Barton, Executive Director of the Bermuda Heart Foundation was invited to attend The Second World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes by Francesco Rubino, MD, Congress Director. Dr. Rubino invited Ms Barton upon hearing of her efforts put into heart health prevention from the VP of New York Presbyterian Hospital Susan Mascitelli.

The congress was a comprehensive, multidisciplinary forum with a faculty of leaders in diabetes, cardiology, surgery, gastroenterology, basic science and public health representing 61 countries.

Throughout the congress the notion for the need of government and insurance providers to be more proactive in covering prevention became a strong issue. Due in large part to the BHF, Bermuda was one of the only countries that could boast such support was fully engaged and working.

The signature design of this congress included lectures on interventional therapies with a main focus on prevention. A highlight of the congress was the announcement from the IDF on Bariatric surgery being an appropriate treatment for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Further highlights included:

• Surgery should be considered as an alternative treatment option in patients with a BMI between 30 and 35 when diabetes cannot be adequately controlled by optimal medical regimen, especially in the presence of other major cardiovascular disease risk factors.
• Available evidence indicates that bariatric surgery for obese patients with type 2 diabetes is costeffective.
• The morbidity and mortality associated with bariatric surgery is generally low, and similar to that
• of well-accepted procedures such as elective gall bladder or gall stone surgery.
• Bariatric surgery in severely obese patients with type

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