Background: Frequent blood glucose (BG) monitoring is a critical component of diabetes management, yet many barriers exist to consistent monitoring.

In Brief To develop individualized goals of therapy for youth with diabetes, an awareness is needed that diabetes both affects and is affected by normal child and adolescent growth and development, as well as by family functioning and dynamics. However, it takes more than the health care team and family members to succeed at managing a child’s or adolescent’s diabetes. This article offers ideas to empower the families of young people with diabetes through multidisciplinary community support from schools, camps, health care teams, and research-driven programs.

Evolving trends in technology and therapeutic strategies create a very exciting time for the management of diabetes. Technology, like the internet, helps us to keep up with this fast-paced, changing world of diabetes. New therapies most often begin with adult clinical trials; once safety and efficacy are demonstrated, practice recommendations follow for the pediatric population. The Diabetes Research Working Group has defined potentially important new directions and technologies for diabetes research. The group has recommended the creation of regional centers of technologic excellence, if contemporary diabetes research is to succeed. An overview of recent advances in diabetes technology follows covering five main areas: monitoring, telemedicine, insulin analogues, insulin delivery devices, and islet cell transplantation.

439Lawlor et al M ore than 176 000 children and adolescents under the age of 20 in the United States have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. One in every 400-600 (0.22%) children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes. 1 Most youth with diabetes take medication to control it. 2 These medications, especially insulin, must be balanced with food and exercise, using information from selfmonitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), to achieve optimal blood glucose control on a daily basis. Health and safety are at risk when these are not balanced. Because most youth spend a significant amount of their day in school and related activities, school personnel must understand diabetes and its management to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students who have diabetes. 2,3 Diabetes educators, who may work in a variety of roles and settings including school systems, are well positioned to assist in the care of the student with diabetes within the school setting. 4 AADE supports and advocates for: P Po os si it ti io on n S St ta at te em me en nt t C Co oo or rd di in na at to or r Margaret T. Lawlor, MS, CDE P Po os si it ti io on n S St ta at te em me en nt t W Wr ri it ti in ng g T Te ea am m Alison B. Evert, MS, RD, CDE P Pr ro of fe es ss si io on na al l P Pr ra ac ct ti ic ce e C Co om mm mi it tt te ee e L Li ia ai is so on n

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