Disrupting the Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Diabetes: New Treatments and Solutions

Abstract

In the United States, diabetes is the leading risk factor for non-traumatic lower extremity amputation in adults. Minorities with diabetes have significantly higher rates of diabetic complications, including amputation and death. These higher rates are due to differences in practice patterns, routine preventative care, education, and access to efficacious and affordable treatments. Efforts to address these inequities can assist in reducing the rates of disparate care and the highly morbid consequences of longstanding and poorly managed diabetes.Many diabetic therapies are cost prohibitive and vary in efficacy. Emerging and novel treatments, including those derived from botanicals, have shown promise to expedite healing, contributing to a better quality of life, reduced healthcare costs, reduced hospitalizations, and a lowering of the risk and necessity of limb amputation in these at-risk populations.