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Health Education Series: 2014 Presents Program on Diabetes at the Bristol Public Library

May 05, 2014

The popular Health Education Series: 2014 addresses one of the most dominant and critical public health concerns in our region with its next presentation on Diabetes on Thursday, May 8 at 6:30 PM in the J. Henry Kegley Meeting Room of the Bristol Public Library. The speaker will be Dr. Jennifer Sorah from the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy Practice at East Tennessee State University. The Health Education Series: 2014 is a partnership of the Bristol Public Library, the Quillen College of Medicine, the Bristol Family Residency Program, and Wellmont Health Systems. Programs at presented on the second Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM at the Bristol Public Library. Dr. Raymond Feierabend is both moderator and coordinator for the program.

Dr. Jennifer Sorah is a PGY2 Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Resident and a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy with East Tennessee State University. Dr. Sorah was born and raised in Bristol, Tennessee, where she graduated from Tennessee High School. She attended East Tennessee State University for her pre-pharmacy coursework and completed her Doctor of Pharmacy at McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Upon graduating in May 2012, she completed a PGY1 residency at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Sorah’s clinical interests include geriatrics, cardiovascular risk reduction, and academia.

Diabetes is prevalent in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Our region of Tennessee has an age-adjusted rate of 10.6% of the adult population with diabetes. That is the third highest percentage in the fifty United States. Southwest Virginia statistics show that 1 in seven adults has diabetes and 1 in three adults is pre-diabetic or diabetic and undiagnosed. Nationally 25.8% of the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic. In 2010 alone there were 1.9 million reported new cases of the disease. Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and African Americans are almost twice as likely to develop diabetes as other ethnic groups.

Upcoming programs will be on Joint Replacement in June and “Health Perils of Summer” in July.