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CJ is living with type 1 diabetes and calls the diabetes-education clinic, recently learning she is 7-weeks gestation. CJ uses a hybrid closed-loop (automated insulin delivery or AID) insulin pump system with continuous glucose monitoring that is set to a target to 110 mg/dl. The Ambulatory Glucose Profile report was reviewed for the past 2 weeks and findings show increasing postprandial hyperglycemia, with average post-meal readings of 170–220 mg/dL. Time in Range (TIR) is 72% (70-180 mg/dl) with 1% of Time below Range. The total daily insulin dose has increased approximately 10% over the same period. And CJ reports no significant changes to diet, activity, or carbohydrate intake. CJ asks if any modifications are need to the diabetes therapy plan?
What can we tell CJ?
Want to Learn More about this Question?
🌟Updated Schedule: ADA Boot Camp, Tech, MNT & More
Live in Beautiful San Diego – Oct 22-23, 2026
Re-Ignite your Passion & Prepare for Diabetes Certification Exams
🎓 Earn 30+ CEs: AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, ACPE, ANCC, and CDR!
📅
2-Day Conference
Oct 22–23, 2026
⏱️
15.5 Live CEs
+ 17 bonus CEs
🏅
CDCES & BC-ADM
Exam Prep + Renewal
📍
San Diego, CA
1.7 mi from airport
The field of diabetes care is expanding and evolving rapidly. This unique training conference will keep you on the cutting edge plus prepare you for certification exams. It also fulfills the Standards of Care renewal requirement. Join us for two days of intensive education that is fun and inspiring. Add on the optional Day 3 (Engaging the Disengaged), to complete your conference exeperience.
Coach Beverly and Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BC-ADM, CDCES co-lead an exciting day that brings the ADA and AACE Standards to life. Gain fresh insights, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of the latest in person-centered diabetes care. After attending, you will be empowered to share the latest in diabetes care with your colleagues and the people in your care.
Take your knowledge to the next level with this intensive deep-dive into insulin therapy, dosing and pattern management with Dr. Diana Isaacs. Next, stay for the diabetes tech show-and-tell as Diana demonstrates the specs of the latest pumps and sensors. After lunch, nutrition whiz Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES expertly details the latest in MNT and provides real strategies on translating this content to your clinical practice. You will have a chance to put it all together as Coach Beverly leads you through a series of case studies that integrates content from Day 1 and Day 2.
On Saturday, join this exceptional day-long program led by William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES & Susan Guzman, PhD (Behavioral Diabetes Institute) that reveals psychosocial forces behind diabetes self-management — tools to break through resistance and inspire change.
Read more below
📜 Essentials
Registration
+ Printed Syllabus
$559.00
🌟 Deluxe
Essentials
+ ADA Standards Book
$589.00
🏆 Complete – Best Value!
Deluxe
+ ADCES Review Guide e-Book
$669.00
Transform how you engage patients with diabetes — master behavior change, reduce distress, and overcome medication hesitancy.
Why do so many patients know what they should do — but still struggle to do it?
The answer lies in the psychology of diabetes.
In this transformative full-day course, world-renowned experts William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES, and Susan Guzman, PhD, from the Behavioral Diabetes Institute reveal the hidden psychosocial forces that drive — or derail — diabetes self-management.
You’ll walk away with a completely new toolkit for breaking through patient resistance, dissolving medication hesitancy, and creating clinical encounters that actually inspire change!
For last week’s practice question, we quizzed participants on how glycemic control can be documented. 37% of respondents chose the best answer. We want to clarify and share this important information, so you can pass it on to people living with diabetes and your colleagues, plus prepare for exam success!
Before we start though, if you don’t want any spoilers and haven’t tried the question yet, you can answer it by clicking here.
A 62‑year‑old woman with type 2 diabetes is being followed in a value‑based care program. She uses a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that provides detailed glucose data, which she electronically shares with her care team.
At her follow‑up visit, her provider notes that her most recent laboratory A1c is unavailable due to a missed lab draw. However, her CGM report shows a Glucose Management Indicator (GMI) of 7.2%. The care team wants to ensure her glycemic status is captured for quality reporting under updated HEDIS® measures.
Which statement best reflects how her glycemic control can be documented?
If you are thinking about taking the certification exam, this practice test question will set you up for success. Test writers anticipate possible answers based on the details in the question. They will wave those “juicy answers” right under your nose. Your job is to weed through the particulars, pluck out the most important elements and choose the BEST answer.
Answer A is correct. 37.12% chose this answer: “GMI from CGM data can be used in place of hemoglobin A1c for quality reporting.” Great job! This is the correct answer. The updated HEDIS® Glycemic Status Assessment for Patients With Diabetes measure accepts either a laboratory A1c or a GMI calculated from CGM data. Therefore, her GMI of 7.2% can be documented for quality reporting and meets the measure’s glycemic-status threshold of less than 8.0%.
Answer B is incorrect. 24.49% of you chose this answer, “GMI is useful for patient education but cannot be used for official quality measures.” GMI supports patient education and clinical decision-making while also serving as an accepted glycemic-status result under the updated HEDIS® measure.
Answer C is incorrect. 21.72% of respondents chose this: “GMI should only be used if time‑in‑range data are also reported.” Time in Range provides valuable information about glucose patterns, but a GMI result can independently document glycemic status for HEDIS® quality reporting.
Finally, Answer D is incorrect. 16.67% chose this answer, “GMI is not recognized by HEDIS® and must be converted to estimated A1c.” The updated HEDIS® measure directly recognizes GMI as a glycemic-status result. GMI is the current term derived from CGM data and requires no conversion to “estimated A1c.”
We hope you appreciate this week’s rationale! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our Test You Knowledge Tuesday and participate in this fun learning activity!
Want to Learn More about this Question?
Did you know that YOU are practicing in a healthcare system where the traditional fee for service model is giving way to value-based diabetes care, and how essential YOU are in that shift?
Jordan is a 52-year-old person living with type 2 diabetes whose provider recently added a second daily medication after their A1C rose from 7.6% to 9.1%. Jordan works alternating shifts and cares for an aging parent. At a follow-up visit, Jordan reports consistently taking their morning dose but missing the evening dose “more nights than not.”
Jordan says, “My schedule’s never the same two days in a row. By the time I remember, I’ve already gone to bed.”
Which response by the diabetes care and education specialist best supports sustainable medication-taking?
Want to Learn More about this Question?
People living with diabetes are often well informed about actions needed to shift into a “healthy lifestyle”, yet often struggle to sustain health behaviors over time. This webinar introduces a positive psychology lens for diabetes care, showing how clinicians can help individuals with diabetes build lifestyles that feel psychologically nourishing, not just medically correct. Rather than focusing solely on risk and problem-solving, we’ll explore how to weave well-being, motivation, and strengths into everyday diabetes education and support.
Drawing on the PERMA framework—Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—participants will learn practical strategies to enhance motivation, resilience, and self-management. We’ll examine how PERMA aligns with key behavior-change principles such as autonomy, connection, and confidence-building, and translate these ideas into simple questions, reframes, and counseling approaches that can be used immediately in healthcare professionals’ practice.
I had such a wonderful experience at the ADCES Conference in Columbus, Ohio! One of the greatest highlights was receiving dozens of hugs from colleagues who shared their joy of achieving diabetes certification after attending our courses. Hearing their stories and celebrating their successes made this event extra special. I felt incredibly appreciated, energized, and connected to our amazing diabetes community.
I also had the honor of presenting as a panelist alongside three inspiring diabetes leaders and entrepreneurs. I asked the panelists from this standing-room-only session to share lessons learned from their entrepreneurial journeys, including what they wish they had known when they first got started. I encourage you to read this article for inspiration and getting-started ideas.
Continued below…
Next, the FDA announced approval of a new continuous ketone-glucose sensor. The Libre Duo 10 Day Continuous Dual Glucose-Ketone Monitoring System is approved for people aged 2 years and older living with diabetes.Gastroparesis is often undetected and undertreated. Gain new insights into this complex condition and explore the latest treatment strategies with nutrition expert Christine Craig, MS, RD, CDCES.
As diabetes healthcare professionals, we know that daily self-management doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Have you ever considered helping people with diabetes flourish? Join positive psychology expert Evgeniya Evans for a refreshing reframing of diabetes self-management.
Celebrate our newest CDCES and BC-ADM success stories and discover what’s coming next! Join Coach Beverly for learning and connection in Hawaii this September or San Diego this October, or take advantage of one of her upcoming FREE webinars from the comfort of home. We’d love to have you join us!
Lastly, I would like to leave you with a quote from an inspirational woman whose larger-than-life persona was balanced by her deep groundedness and extraordinary artistic and philanthropic vision.
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose. And do it with purpose.” – Dolly Parton
With hearts full of gratitude,
Coach Beverly, Bryanna, Ashlie, and Katarina
People living with diabetes are often well informed about actions needed to shift into a “healthy lifestyle”, yet often struggle to sustain health behaviors over time. This webinar introduces a positive psychology lens for diabetes care, showing how clinicians can help individuals with diabetes build lifestyles that feel psychologically nourishing, not just medically correct. Rather than focusing solely on risk and problem-solving, we’ll explore how to weave well-being, motivation, and strengths into everyday diabetes education and support.
This 30‑minute exclusive session, by expert Marie Frazzitta, DNP, FNP‑C, PMHNP, CDCES, MBA, will provide a high‑level overview of how digital quality measures, CGM data, and value‑based care are transforming diabetes care delivery and reporting. You’ll learn how these shifts create new opportunities for diabetes health professionals to lead, demonstrate value, and shape the future of technology‑enabled diabetes care.
Lead the Transformation Webinar Topics
🌟Updated Schedule: ADA Boot Camp, Tech, MNT & More
Live in Beautiful San Diego – Oct 22-23, 2026
Re-Ignite your Passion & Prepare for Diabetes Certification Exams
🎓 Earn 30+ CEs: AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, ACPE, ANCC, and CDR!
📅
2-Day Conference
Oct 22–23, 2026
⏱️
15.5 Live CEs
+ 17 bonus CEs
🏅
CDCES & BC-ADM
Exam Prep + Renewal
📍
San Diego, CA
1.7 mi from airport
The field of diabetes care is expanding and evolving rapidly. This unique training conference will keep you on the cutting edge plus prepare you for certification exams. It also fulfills the Standards of Care renewal requirement. Join us for two days of intensive education that is fun and inspiring. Add on the optional Day 3 (Engaging the Disengaged), to complete your conference exeperience.
Coach Beverly and Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BC-ADM, CDCES co-lead an exciting day that brings the ADA and AACE Standards to life. Gain fresh insights, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of the latest in person-centered diabetes care. After attending, you will be empowered to share the latest in diabetes care with your colleagues and the people in your care.
Take your knowledge to the next level with this intensive deep-dive into insulin therapy, dosing and pattern management with Dr. Diana Isaacs. Next, stay for the diabetes tech show-and-tell as Diana demonstrates the specs of the latest pumps and sensors. After lunch, nutrition whiz Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES expertly details the latest in MNT and provides real strategies on translating this content to your clinical practice. You will have a chance to put it all together as Coach Beverly leads you through a series of case studies that integrates content from Day 1 and Day 2.
On Saturday, join this exceptional day-long program led by William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES & Susan Guzman, PhD (Behavioral Diabetes Institute) that reveals psychosocial forces behind diabetes self-management — tools to break through resistance and inspire change.
Read more below
📜 Essentials
Registration
+ Printed Syllabus
$559.00
🌟 Deluxe
Essentials
+ ADA Standards Book
$589.00
🏆 Complete – Best Value!
Deluxe
+ ADCES Review Guide e-Book
$669.00
Transform how you engage patients with diabetes — master behavior change, reduce distress, and overcome medication hesitancy.
Why do so many patients know what they should do — but still struggle to do it?
The answer lies in the psychology of diabetes.
In this transformative full-day course, world-renowned experts William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES, and Susan Guzman, PhD, from the Behavioral Diabetes Institute reveal the hidden psychosocial forces that drive — or derail — diabetes self-management.
You’ll walk away with a completely new toolkit for breaking through patient resistance, dissolving medication hesitancy, and creating clinical encounters that actually inspire change!
For last week’s practice question, we quizzed participants on which response BEST reflects PERMA framework. 77% of respondents chose the best answer. We want to clarify and share this important information, so you can pass it on to people living with diabetes and your colleagues, plus prepare for exam success!
Before we start though, if you don’t want any spoilers and haven’t tried the question yet, you can answer it by clicking here.
You are working with SL, who understands the benefits of physical activity but has struggled to maintain a regular routine. SL says, “I know I should exercise, but every plan I try eventually feels like another diabetes chore.”
Which response BEST reflects a positive psychology (PERMA) approach to supporting sustainable behavior change?
If you are thinking about taking the certification exam, this practice test question will set you up for success. Test writers anticipate possible answers based on the details in the question. They will wave those “juicy answers” right under your nose. Your job is to weed through the particulars, pluck out the most important elements and choose the BEST answer.
Answer A is incorrect. 2.11% chose this answer: “Let’s set a goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week and track your progress.” Establishes an evidence-based activity goal, but a prescribed target does not address SL’s concern that exercise feels like another obligation. pattern identified above was post-prandial hyperglycemia, making a recommendation for basal increase without additional information inappropriate.
Answer B is correct. 77.11% of you chose this answer, “What types of movement have you enjoyed in the past, and who might you enjoy doing them with?” Great job! This is the correct answer. Positive psychology expands the conversation beyond what a person should do and explores what can make a healthy behavior rewarding and sustainable. Asking about enjoyable activities and social connection incorporates several elements of the Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA) framework—particularly Positive Emotion, Engagement, and Relationships. The approach also supports autonomy by inviting SL to identify an activity that fits their life.
Answer C is incorrect. 0.35% of respondents chose this: “Regular activity can lower your glucose and reduce your risk of cardiovascular complications.” Provides important health information, but SL already understands why physical activity matters. More education about risk and benefits may not increase motivation.
Finally, Answer D is incorrect. 20.42% chose this answer, “Let’s identify the barriers that have prevented you from following your previous activity plans.” Uses a useful problem-solving approach and could be appropriate, but it remains focused primarily on what is getting in the way. A positive psychology approach also asks what could make the behavior enjoyable, meaningful, and worth continuing.
We hope you appreciate this week’s rationale! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our Test You Knowledge Tuesday and participate in this fun learning activity!
Want to Learn More about this Question?
People living with diabetes are often well informed about actions needed to shift into a “healthy lifestyle”, yet often struggle to sustain health behaviors over time. This webinar introduces a positive psychology lens for diabetes care, showing how clinicians can help individuals with diabetes build lifestyles that feel psychologically nourishing, not just medically correct. Rather than focusing solely on risk and problem-solving, we’ll explore how to weave well-being, motivation, and strengths into everyday diabetes education and support.
Drawing on the PERMA framework—Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—participants will learn practical strategies to enhance motivation, resilience, and self-management. We’ll examine how PERMA aligns with key behavior-change principles such as autonomy, connection, and confidence-building, and translate these ideas into simple questions, reframes, and counseling approaches that can be used immediately in healthcare professionals’ practice.
Author: Evgeniya Evans, MAPP, RDN, LDN, CDCES
Diabetes care often asks people to add more to their busy daily schedules: more decisions, more data, more appointments, more routines. But what if sustainable health habits aren’t primarily a test of willpower? What if we look at them as a design challenge?
As diabetes healthcare professionals, we know that daily self-management doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It unfolds alongside work, caregiving, financial pressure, food access, cultural food traditions, fatigue, stress, transportation, neighborhood safety, and uneven access to care. Evidence-based recommendations matter, but they’re hard to sustain when they feel prescriptive, externally imposed, or disconnected from a person’s actual priorities. A plan that’s perfect on paper is worth little if it isn’t intrinsically motivating for the person living it.
Positive psychology and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) offer diabetes professionals a practical reframe: instead of asking people to fit more health tasks into their lives, we can help them redesign health-supportive routines to fit and even strengthen the lives they already want to live.
The goal isn’t to make people comply with a plan. It’s to help them design health-supportive routines that are chosen, possible, connected, and worth repeating.
A person can fully understand the clinical rationale for nutrition therapy, movement, medication-taking, glucose monitoring, or stress management and still struggle to fit it into daily life. That’s not necessarily a knowledge gap or a personal failure.
When we frame the challenge as “motivation,” we risk overlooking the real-world conditions shaping what’s actually feasible. Someone may want to cook at home but face high food costs, an unpredictable schedule, caregiving demands, or limited kitchen equipment. Person-centered care means exploring these realities with curiosity, not judgment, and it’s consistent with the ADA Standards of Care in Diabetes, which dedicate an entire section to facilitating positive health behaviors and wellbeing as part of evidence-based, person-centered treatment.
SDT helps explain why some health behaviors become personally owned while others stay burdensome obligations. Per foundational SDT research by Ryan and Deci (2000), sustainable, self-directed motivation depends on three psychological needs:
In practice, the clinician’s role becomes more than delivering the “right” recommendation; it’s co-creating an approach the person can actually carry forward. Instead of asking, “Why aren’t you following the plan?” we might ask, “What would make this feel more workable in your life right now?”
This isn’t passive care. It’s an active, collaborative use of clinical expertise to offer meaningful choices, highlight what’s working, build skills, anticipate barriers, and strengthen support. A 2023 scoping review found SDT-informed approaches show promise for improving diabetes self-management, treatment adherence, and quality of life, but the evidence base is growing and still uneven.
Positive psychology adds another useful question: can a health behavior contribute to wellbeing, rather than simply compete with it?
Positive psychology founder Martin Seligman defined wellbeing not as a fleeting feeling but as a measurable combination of positive feeling and a life filled with meaning and purpose (Seligman, 2011). His PERMA model names five building blocks of flourishing: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. These aren’t rewards people earn after “perfect” diabetes self-management; they can be built directly into everyday routines so those routines become more appealing and repeatable.
Movement, for instance, is clinically beneficial regardless, but the experience changes when the person chooses the time and place, walks with a loved one, or pairs it with music they enjoy. Even medication-taking shifts when it’s anchored to a meaningful daily ritual, like morning coffee with a partner, rather than treated as an isolated task.
The goal isn’t to layer all five PERMA elements onto every recommendation. It’s to identify the one or two that turn a health behavior from another “should” into something that supports the life the person wants.
Consider someone advised to walk after dinner. They understand the glucose benefits, but they’re exhausted after work, caring for a family member, and don’t feel safe walking alone after dark. Repeating the recommendation more firmly won’t change the routine; it’ll just add friction.
A life-design conversation starts differently: “What part of your evening already gives you even a small sense of enjoyment, connection, or calm?”
Maybe they mention a nightly call with a sibling. From there, clinician and patient can explore a short indoor walk during that call, a safe mall walk on certain days, or light movement during a favorite show. The person chooses the option. The plan reflects their real constraints and resources. Connection and enjoyment are built in. Each completed step becomes evidence of their own capability.
The clinical recommendation stays evidence-informed, but the routine becomes autonomous, feasible, connected, and life-enhancing.
Positive psychology doesn’t replace diabetes education, medical nutrition therapy, or medication management; it’s a complementary lens for designing behavior-change conversations. A 2022 systematic review found positive psychological interventions may support behaviors like physical activity, diet, and medication adherence, though this remains an emerging, evidence-informed area rather than a settled one.
When health habits support autonomy, competence, relatedness, enjoyment, meaning, and progress, they stop being tasks on a treatment plan, and start becoming part of a life someone actually wants to live.
At your next visit, pick one health recommendation and ask: “How could we make this feel like it belongs in this person’s life?”
That single question can open a different kind of clinical conversation, one that surfaces values, strengths, constraints, sources of joy, and forms of support a standard treatment plan might otherwise miss.
Evgeniya Evans, MAPP, RDN, LDN, CDCES
Excited to dive deeper? Join Evgeniya Evans, MAPP, RDN, LDN, CDCES, on September 14, 2026, for From Compliance to Connection: Positive Psychology Strategies for Lasting Change in Diabetes Care, a live session exploring how to integrate SDT and PERMA into person-centered diabetes education, with practical strategies for helping people redesign health habits that are both clinically supportive and personally sustainable.
Course Topics:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming diabetes prevention, monitoring, and management. As clinical care tasks and data grow exponentially, providers and individuals living with or at risk for diabetes seek ways to optimize timely, personalized, and effective care.1
AI can support this by enabling screening and imaging, risk predictions, AI-enhanced devices, individualized self-management tools, and clinical support.1 Because diabetes care requires individualized rather than one-size-fits-all treatment, integrating clinical, behavioral, and lifestyle data with AI could reduce routine data review, allowing providers to focus on meaningful conversations, shared decision-making, and personalized goal-setting. Used thoughtfully, AI could support clinical expertise and strengthen, not replace, the human element that is essential to effective care.
Author: Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES
Founder: Nutrition for Daily Living
For decades, diabetes management relied on retrospective data, reviewing information such as lab results, glucose logs, food records, and medication histories to understand what had occurred. When I began in diabetes care over 20 years ago, we had only a few computer-generated reports and logbooks, and gathering and interpreting the data took time. We used checklists to ensure labs, vitals, risk assessments, and preventive measures were completed.
Now, rather than spending appointment time on checklists and handwritten logs, we can start each visit with a comprehensive summary of key diabetes assessments and clinical care tasks. Integrated reminders, concise summaries, and data platforms enable a much quicker transition to intervention discussions.
In practice, we already use platforms like Dexcom Clarity, Abbott LibreView, MiniMed CareLink, Tandem source, Omnipod Glooko, and Tidepool, which use algorithms to analyze glucose patterns and generate insights for clinicians and device users. Data from CGMs, activity trackers, sleep monitors2, and insulin delivery systems can reveal patterns that were nearly impossible to detect within the time constraints of 20 years ago. Conversations now shift from, “What happened here?” to, “What can we learn from these patterns for future considerations?”
During diabetes care visits, AI-powered ambient scribes (such as Dragon CoPilot, Ambience, Heidi AI, Freed, and other EHR-embedded scribes)3 can assist with documentation by summarizing key elements of the conversation. Because this significantly reduces time spent at the computer, providers can focus more on the individual. Based on my experience, this reduction in administrative burden also enables deeper shared decision-making regarding management adjustments, health behavior changes, barriers, and concerns.
Following the visit, ambient scribes can organize information into a clear, personalized after-visit summary that reinforces key recommendations, action steps, and education provided. However, accuracy remains a concern; large language models (LLMs) generating discharge summaries were shown to contain errors, though the risk of harm was assessed as low1.
From a dietitian’s perspective, LLMs can also help create individualized nutrition resources tailored to food choices, culture, and clinical needs. Instead of providing a generic meal plan, tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and EHR-embedded AI can generate meal ideas, recipe modifications, or personalized food lists. A recent study using ChatGPT (GPT-5 version)4 found that ChatGPT could approximate carbohydrate targets but had limitations in accuracy when balancing multiple dietary requirements simultaneously (such as carbohydrate percentage, total calories, and meal planning constraints).
LLMs’ effectiveness and accuracy can improve with well-designed prompts that provide clinical context, specific goals, and defined constraints, but clinical review and oversight are recommended. Prompts may often require refinement, and LLMs simply react to input words, leading to hallucinations5.
AI can extend support beyond the diabetes clinical visit with tracking tools that can provide users with summarized insights. Examples of food photo interpretation and glucose trackers include SNAQ, UnderMyFork,6 Glucose Buddy, GlucoAI, and Freestyle Libre Assist. While these apps can still have errors and inaccuracies, these tools may help with understanding meal components beyond carbohydrates, such as the impacts of food type and protein, fat, and fiber content.
ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are also being used for carbohydrate counting, and a recent study compared these LLMs with expert dietitians for carbohydrate estimation from meal photographs. Across 30 meals, dietitians had the lowest mean absolute error (13 ± 10 g), followed by ChatGPT (20 ± 18 g), Claude (23 ± 21 g), and Gemini (28 ± 26 g). L.7
In addition to tracking, between-visit AI support may improve outcomes. A recent randomized controlled trial8 found that a fully automated AI-driven Diabetes Prevention Program achieved weight loss and glycemic improvements similar to those of a human coach in adults with prediabetes and overweight or obesity.
However, AI has important limitations. It may generate inaccurate recommendations, overlook complex medical conditions, or fail to recognize economic, cultural, and racial disparities or emotional and behavioral challenges that influence diabetes self-management.1
Future AI-enabled clinical diabetes care could feature the use of a digital twin, a virtual model that simulates an individual’s glucose patterns, meals, activity, medications, sleep, genetics, and prior treatment responses to predict the physiological impacts of proposed changes.1
For example, clinicians might ask, “Based on this person’s metabolic history and patterns, what if we reduce breakfast carbohydrates, start a GLP-1 medication, modify insulin, or adjust activity?” In these scenarios, the digital twin can inform what-if considerations.
A recent systematic review9 of 4 studies involving 2,662 adults with type 2 diabetes found that digital twin-based interventions improved glycemic management and reduced treatment burden, including significant reductions in diabetes medications and improvements in time in range.
While these findings are promising, evidence remains limited, and further research is needed to validate these applications in diverse populations.
Artificial intelligence is evolving diabetes care.
AI-powered tools help organize health data, reduce administrative tasks, identify patterns and make predictions, personalize nutrition and treatment strategies, and extend support between visits.
While AI enhances diabetes management and prevention, its value is supported by clinical expertise, compassion, and personalized care.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Society of Nutrition published a 2026 resource guide for practitioners. This guide provides basic definitions of the different types of AI models and how these types are translated into practice. This publication links to a few educational and professional development courses specific to AI and valuable for all diabetes care providers. Check it out here.
Author: Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES
Founder: Nutrition for Daily Living
🌟Updated Schedule: ADA Boot Camp, Tech, MNT & More
Live in Beautiful San Diego – Oct 22-23, 2026
Re-Ignite your Passion & Prepare for Diabetes Certification Exams
🎓 Earn 30+ CEs: AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, ACPE, ANCC, and CDR!
📅
2-Day Conference
Oct 22–23, 2026
⏱️
15.5 Live CEs
+ 17 bonus CEs
🏅
CDCES & BC-ADM
Exam Prep + Renewal
📍
San Diego, CA
1.7 mi from airport
The field of diabetes care is expanding and evolving rapidly. This unique training conference will keep you on the cutting edge plus prepare you for certification exams. It also fulfills the Standards of Care renewal requirement. Join us for two days of intensive education that is fun and inspiring. Add on the optional Day 3 (Engaging the Disengaged), to complete your conference exeperience.
Coach Beverly and Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BC-ADM, CDCES co-lead an exciting day that brings the ADA and AACE Standards to life. Gain fresh insights, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of the latest in person-centered diabetes care. After attending, you will be empowered to share the latest in diabetes care with your colleagues and the people in your care.
Take your knowledge to the next level with this intensive deep-dive into insulin therapy, dosing and pattern management with Dr. Diana Isaacs. Next, stay for the diabetes tech show-and-tell as Diana demonstrates the specs of the latest pumps and sensors. After lunch, nutrition whiz Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES expertly details the latest in MNT and provides real strategies on translating this content to your clinical practice. You will have a chance to put it all together as Coach Beverly leads you through a series of case studies that integrates content from Day 1 and Day 2.
On Saturday, join this exceptional day-long program led by William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES & Susan Guzman, PhD (Behavioral Diabetes Institute) that reveals psychosocial forces behind diabetes self-management — tools to break through resistance and inspire change.
Read more below
📜 Essentials
Registration
+ Printed Syllabus
$559.00
🌟 Deluxe
Essentials
+ ADA Standards Book
$589.00
🏆 Complete – Best Value!
Deluxe
+ ADCES Review Guide e-Book
$669.00
Transform how you engage patients with diabetes — master behavior change, reduce distress, and overcome medication hesitancy.
Why do so many patients know what they should do — but still struggle to do it?
The answer lies in the psychology of diabetes.
In this transformative full-day course, world-renowned experts William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES, and Susan Guzman, PhD, from the Behavioral Diabetes Institute reveal the hidden psychosocial forces that drive — or derail — diabetes self-management.
You’ll walk away with a completely new toolkit for breaking through patient resistance, dissolving medication hesitancy, and creating clinical encounters that actually inspire change!
October is one of the best times to head to San Diego. The weather is gorgeous, the summer crowds are winding down, and there’s one more important reason to visit: our wildly popular DiabetesEd Training Conference is coming back to Liberty Station!
Located just minutes from the San Diego airport, this conference site is the perfect place to learn, connect, recharge, and have fun.
During the conference, you’ll have the opportunity to meet Rachel and Laura, our inspiring “Making a Difference” Scholarship recipients, expand your clinical knowledge with our expert teaching trio – Coach Bev, Diana Isaacs, and Christine Craig – network with fellow diabetes healthcare professionals, and, of course, win prizes!
So invite your colleagues, bring your family. 🏖️ Learn and connect during the day, then head out and enjoy beautiful SD at night.
And this year, we’re adding something new! For the first time ever, we’ll have an on-site photo booth 📸complete with fun props, thanks to the creative inspiration of Missy Hodges.
But plenty is happening even before we get to San Diego.
In this mid-month newsletter, we’re celebrating our deserving Scholarship 🧑🎓 recipients, sharing upcoming FREE Certification Webinars, and inviting you to join nationally recognized expert, Marie Frazzitta, for a timely exploration of the shift toward value-based care and digital outcomes metrics. Don’t miss Marie’s FREE webinar on September 30th and discover how diabetes healthcare professionals can join the transformation toward value-based care.
We hope to see you online in August & September—and in sunny San Diego 🌴 in October!
With hearts full of gratitude,
Coach Beverly, Bryanna, Ashlie, and Katarina
As a nutritionist, Laura serves primarily Spanish-speaking older adults living with diabetes, many of whom face food insecurity, transportation barriers, and limited access to care. Through culturally responsive education, motivational interviewing, and thoughtful listening, she helps people feel heard and empowered.
Laura hopes as a first-generation Latina, to gain CDCES certification and continue to provide culturally responsive education and expand access to compassionate diabetes care in her community.
Rachel has served rural Comanche County in Texas for 25 years, providing diabetes care through an outpatient clinic, community screenings, and monthly volunteer work at a free clinic serving local dairy workers. She is committed to bringing diabetes care and education to an area where “folks are hungry for information” but access is limited. Her goal is to help people change outcomes through education, establish a sustainable diabetes education program, and leave “a legacy of health” for the community she has dedicated her career to serving.
🌟Updated Schedule: ADA Boot Camp, Tech, MNT & More
Live in Beautiful San Diego – Oct 22-23, 2026
Re-Ignite your Passion & Prepare for Diabetes Certification Exams
🎓 Earn 30+ CEs: AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, ACPE, ANCC, and CDR!
📅
2-Day Conference
Oct 22–23, 2026
⏱️
15.5 Live CEs
+ 17 bonus CEs
🏅
CDCES & BC-ADM
Exam Prep + Renewal
📍
San Diego, CA
1.7 mi from airport
The field of diabetes care is expanding and evolving rapidly. This unique training conference will keep you on the cutting edge plus prepare you for certification exams. It also fulfills the Standards of Care renewal requirement. Join us for two days of intensive education that is fun and inspiring. Add on the optional Day 3 (Engaging the Disengaged), to complete your conference exeperience.
Coach Beverly and Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BC-ADM, CDCES co-lead an exciting day that brings the ADA and AACE Standards to life. Gain fresh insights, practical tools, and a deeper understanding of the latest in person-centered diabetes care. After attending, you will be empowered to share the latest in diabetes care with your colleagues and the people in your care.
Take your knowledge to the next level with this intensive deep-dive into insulin therapy, dosing and pattern management with Dr. Diana Isaacs. Next, stay for the diabetes tech show-and-tell as Diana demonstrates the specs of the latest pumps and sensors. After lunch, nutrition whiz Christine Craig, MS, RDN, CDCES expertly details the latest in MNT and provides real strategies on translating this content to your clinical practice. You will have a chance to put it all together as Coach Beverly leads you through a series of case studies that integrates content from Day 1 and Day 2.
On Saturday, join this exceptional day-long program led by William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES & Susan Guzman, PhD (Behavioral Diabetes Institute) that reveals psychosocial forces behind diabetes self-management — tools to break through resistance and inspire change.
Read more below
📜 Essentials
Registration
+ Printed Syllabus
$559.00
🌟 Deluxe
Essentials
+ ADA Standards Book
$589.00
🏆 Complete – Best Value!
Deluxe
+ ADCES Review Guide e-Book
$669.00
Transform how you engage patients with diabetes — master behavior change, reduce distress, and overcome medication hesitancy.
Why do so many patients know what they should do — but still struggle to do it?
The answer lies in the psychology of diabetes.
In this transformative full-day course, world-renowned experts William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDCES, and Susan Guzman, PhD, from the Behavioral Diabetes Institute reveal the hidden psychosocial forces that drive — or derail — diabetes self-management.
You’ll walk away with a completely new toolkit for breaking through patient resistance, dissolving medication hesitancy, and creating clinical encounters that actually inspire change!
