Imagine you’re a newly diagnosed diabetes patient. Suddenly you have to change the way you eat, learn about preventative treatment, treat foot ulcers, receive counselling and visit your physician often to monitor your diabetes — all of which could require visiting a number of different care providers. Or you could visit Daniel Shafran’s Edmonton Diabetes & High Risk Foot Clinic, a one-stop shop for people with the condition.
“You don’t have to discover your passion, you can build it,” Shafran says, “I didn’t expect to be a diabetes doctor but I love it — I love making life easier for my patients and giving them quality of life.”
Shafran’s clinic has decreased wait times from two years to two months for insulin pumps, and its team of nurses, counsellors, specialized physicians, dieticians and educators provide preventative and management for patients. The clinic has even set up medical pedicures not just for diabetes patients but for anyone who needs foot care provided by nurses in a sterile environment. “Diabetic foot wounds have a risk of mortality that’s approximately equal to all cancers combined,” states Shafran, smiling over the lives his foot clinic has saved.
This article appears in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of Edify
