The Joslin Diabetes Center’s affiliate at Raritan Bay Medical Center provides patients with individualized care and personalized programs

by Jessica Jones-Gorman • Photos By Amessé Photography

When Elliott P. Joslin became the first U.S. doctor to specialize in diabetes in 1898, he was considered a medical pioneer. Tracking patient data in hand-written ledgers, he agonized over the details of this then-obscure disease, compiling pages of facts, progress and outcomes before opening the world’s first dedicated diabetes care facility, the Joslin Clinic, in Boston in 1956. His recognition of the disease’s severity and his vision for treatment helped make Dr. Joslin’s research decades ahead of its time. That mission continues today, as Joslin Diabetes Centers have cropped up across the U.S., including an affiliate at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge. There, the goal is both specialized patient care and prevention of the disease.

“This is an extremely unique center, unlike any other diabetes center in the state,” noted Dr. Reema Patel, medical director of the Joslin Diabetes Center affiliate in Old Bridge. “We offer a patient-centered approach with a focus on self-management education. Usually a typical office visit only consists of patients seeing a physician, being given medication refills, and then being scheduled for a follow-up visit. At our center, our patients are evaluated and taken care of by multiple professionals, including a diabetes nurse educator, a registered dietician, as well as board-certified endocrinologists. We ensure that the patients are well informed and all their questions are answered before they leave the office. It’s a wonderful collaboration and everything is offered right here in the same facility.”

The Raritan Bay Medical Center, which features both diabetes and endocrinology care, became a Joslin affiliate in December of 2013 and moved into its current Old Bridge location in May of 2015. The 5,000-square-foot space allows room for clinical examination, treatment, and group education sessions.

“We conduct regular group classes as well as one-on-one programs that focus on a variety of topics related to diabetes, including prevention and complications arising from it,” Dr. Patel said. “Physicians from a variety of specialties are invited— podiatrists come to speak about the importance of foot care, dentists participate in dialogue about dental hygiene.”

A state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen also plays host to cooking programs from corporations like Whole Foods Market, Art of Salad, and Wegmans Food Markets.

“Our cooking classes not only inform patients about good food choices, they also show them how to cook easy and healthy meals that are diabetes friendly,” Patel said. “We’re also currently planning grocery tours at ShopRite to help teach patients how to be smart shoppers.”

Diabetes, a disease in which the body’s inability to produce or use insulin causes elevated glucose levels, is at the heart of the Joslin Diabetes Center’s program, but there are a variety of other endocrine conditions treated at the facility, including low testosterone, polycystic ovary syndrome, thyroid dysfunction, thyroid cancer, disorders of the pituitary and adrenal glands, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and osteoporosis.

For Dr. Patel, who is board certified in endocrinology, diabetes, and internal medicine, the Joslin Center is an ideal environment for her patients.

“Everything is here in one place so treatment is very structured and patient centered,” she explained. “We provide teaching and offer step-by-step instruction on how to use their glucometer, medications, and insulin, and also instruct them how to deal with diabetes in different situations like exercise or sickness, because for most patients this information is all brand new. We’re also big in managing diabetes as a whole; we focus on weight loss and counsel patients on managing obesity, because lifestyle changes are a big part of controlling this disease and other metabolic syndromes.”

Raritan Bay’s Joslin Diabetes Center currently has two board-certified endocrinologists, one registered dietician, two diabetic nurse educators, and six medical assistants. The facility handles more than 3,000 patient visits each year. Dr. Patel, who graduated from the Government Medical College in Surat, India in 2005, did her internal medicine residency at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and completed a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at SUNY

“We offer a very patient-centered approach, with a focus on diabetes self-management education.”

Buffalo before becoming medical director of the Joslin Center in Old Bridge in 2013.

“I chose this specialty because I wanted to make a difference,” she said. “During my training in internal medicine, I realized how much diabetes can impact a patient’s overall well being. And then I worked with an endocrinologist in Jersey City and could see the difference he was making as he treated his patients. I knew this was a problem and a growing epidemic, and felt it was an area of medicine where, as a doctor, I could have the most impact and make a significant difference in my patients’ lives.

“I think that the past year, 2015, was probably the most active year in terms of developments in diabetes medicine and research,” Dr. Patel continued. “The industry added more than 10 new medicines and insulin during that one year time span, and that’s really something that has not happened in a very long time. We now also have many more options for treating diabetes than we used to have in the past, and are very lucky to live in an era such as this when medical research is catching up to the disease and making brilliant strides toward its treatment.”

Dr. Patel and her staff also strive to provide effective customized patient care based on a wide range of modern treatment options.

“Every patient is unique, so it’s good to have options,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have a variety of medicines to offer for managing every individual’s specific needs. That is what this center is all about.

Joslin Diabetes Center
Affiliate at Raritan Bay Medical Center
2 Hospital Plaza, State Route 420, Old Bridge / 732.360.4070 / joslin.org