DCOE: a unique entity within the 59th MDW Published Nov. 2, 2015 By Staff Sgt. Chelsea Browning 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs -- The 59th Medical Wing is home to the Diabetes Center of Excellence, a premier Air Force Medical Service specialty clinic dedicated to providing standardized diabetes care to beneficiaries across the military health care system. Composed of three sections - a clinical division, an outreach division, and a research division - the DCOE is staffed by board certified endocrinologists, endocrine fellows, internal medicine residents, diabetes nurse practitioners, certified diabetes educators, an exercise physiologist, a dietician, a doctoral researcher, and licensed vocational nurses. "The clinical footprint is the part that most people see, where we actually take care of patients," said Dr. Tom Sauerwein, director of the DCOE. The blend of active duty, civilian, and contract personal provides referral care to more than 50,000 TRICARE beneficiaries. Within the clinical division, there are multiple areas of expertise to include diabetes prevention, diabetes education, and diabetes management. As the subject matter expert for diabetes care, the DCOE's research division ensures that treatment methods and tools are up-to-date and precise. The division also validates the tools to ensure they work as designed. "We're involved in developing clinical practice guidelines, a part of clinical development (necessary) for making the 59th Medical Wing a high reliability organization," Sauerwein said. The outreach division's approach to care is unique, compared to other centers of excellences. "Most centers of excellences across the United States (that are not military) try to bring patients to them because they do special surgeries," explained Sauerwein. "We're different because our main focus is outreach. Our focus is to teach everyone how to manage patients with diabetes." One educational resource is available online: Diabetes Central is located on the Air Force Knowledge Exchange site. There, health care providers can find slide presentations, teaching tools and other helpful resources. "It's all standardized diabetes care (and education), and on that platform the Air Force, Army and Navy all have access with their CAC. They can download and review all of our diabetes management/educational material," said Sauerwein. Some courses the DCOE offer are geared toward improving health care teams, such as the Diabetes Champion Course, which is available every six month. Most military treatment facilities typically send a physician or health care provider, a nurse and a technician to the training. Health care providers from about 35 different military treatment facilities have already taken advantage of the three-day course. "The teams come and learn how to manage patients with diabetes," said Sauerwein. "If they can't come in person, they can do it virtually. We've had seven classes thus far, with more than 90 learners attending the most recent course. The outreach division also designed a virtual diabetes classroom where people from other bases can attend and get Diabetes Self-Management Education that is recognized by the American Diabetes Association. The DCOE also plays an integral part in graduate medical education, supporting the 59th MDW's internal medicine residency program and endocrinology fellowship program. "We are the platform for the education. All of the internal medicine residents rotate through the DCOE to learn about the management of complex diabetes and insulin titration," Sauerwein said. "We are also the only (source of) diabetes education for Air Force endocrinology fellows. "The DCOE is important to the 59th MDW because the wing's vision is to provide quality patient-centered health care anywhere," Sauerwein said. "We help accomplish this by establishing and providing standardized diabetes care across the military health system for the benefit of all our patients," he added. For more information about the DCOE, call 210-292-2000.