Tackling diabetes…with song

Every day clinicians and scientists at the Boris Family Clinic help people deal with their diabetes and look for new solutions to this common disease. Now they are using a novel approach: a music video.

The video, filmed with and sung by the staff of the Boris Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program, is an innovative way to show patients and their families that a wide variety of health care providers are available to help manage the disease, says Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, medical director of the clinic.

The music video, ‘We get it…Together’ is available online at: http://bit.ly/2ejhN3H

“The goal is to de-stigmatize the disease and reduce barriers for people seeking help to manage their diabetes,” said Gerstein, who wrote the song. “We want people to know that we’re here to help, and that many effective therapies are available.

“We also had a great time producing the video.”

Gerstein is also a professor of medicine for McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and an endocrinologist at Hamilton Health Sciences.

The Boris Clinic is a multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic at the McMaster University Medical Centre. The clinic – which opened in 2014 – is one of a kind in Canada, bringing several medical specialties as well as research and medical learners together under one roof to support patients who have complex health conditions, including diabetes.