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Diabetes Care in Singapore
Diabetes goes undetected for a long time and only specialists treat diabetes. Singapore has the third highest rate of kidney disease in world. In 50 percent of the newly diagnosed cases of kidney disease, diabetes is discovered as the underlying cause.

Staged Diabetes Management Update
Doctors Sylvia Ramirez and Stephen I-Hong Hsu's worldwide search for a model program in diabetes care landed them at International Diabetes Center. Since then, they've traveled to Minnesota three times with a team of physicians to receive SDM training.

As physicians with the National Kidney Foundation Singapore, Drs. Hsu and Ramirez hope to work with the NKFS and the country's Ministry of Health to develop a comprehensive program of prevention and treatment of diabetes and hypertension as a way to prevent kidney disease. One of the ways they are looking at doing this is through early detection of diabetes, and the implementation of the SDM model of care.

Ten percent of the population (400,000 people) in Singapore have already been screened through the government's national kidney screening program. The hope is to also initiate screening for diabetes, prior to the development of kidney disease.