This post was authored by Mikhail Kosiborod, MD, FACC, chair of the Diabetes Collaborative Registry Steering Committee.

Recent estimates project that as many as one in three American adults will have diabetes by 2050 unless additional steps are taken to prevent and treat the disease. Raising public awareness of the signs and symptoms of diabetes, as well as how to prevent it, is one of the most critical ways to have an impact on the disease. However, raising awareness among clinicians about the need for expanded interdisciplinary care in managing diabetes and related disorders is equally crucial.

When it comes to cardiovascular disease in particular, diabetes significantly increases the risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure and cardiovascular death. Over the last several years the ACC has partnered on several efforts to raise awareness about the links between diabetes and heart disease, given the strong association between the two. At the crux of these efforts is the need to bring together health care providers from across the primary and specialty care continuum to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors through early assessment and targeted interventions.

In a recent interview with Cardiology Today, I noted that cardiovascular professionals can no longer leave diabetes management to primary care physicians and endocrinologists, but rather we need to take partial ownership and responsibility. Not only are we are often the first frontier when patients come in with cardiovascular issues, increasingly often we are the diagnosing clinician or, occasionally, even the sole provider of care. We need to be aware of whether our patients have prediabetes or diabetes so that we can help them with lifestyle modifications (an important part of diabetes prevention and treatment); in addition, presence of diabetes can significantly impact the management of patients’ cardiovascular issues.

Many of the treatments we use routinely as cardiologists can significantly reduce major adverse cardiac events in patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who are at particularly high risk for recurrent complications. For example, research from the ACC’s PINNACLE Registry presented during AHA 2015 looked at frequency and practice-level variation in statin use among patients with diabetes. Furthermore, there is emerging evidence that some of the newer treatments for diabetes may significantly improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes and prevalent CVD. Specifically, empagliflozin, an inhibitor of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2, plus standard care, was recently found to markedly lower the rate death from cardiovascular causes, as well as all-cause mortality and hospitalizations for heart failure in this patient group.

We can no longer consider diabetes to be simply a comorbidity that doesn’t directly affect us as a specialty. Rather, diabetes should be considered to be a part of the cardiometabolic syndrome that so many of our patients exhibit. This is why the ACC has developed a robust clinical topic hub on ACC.org that features the latest news and expert commentary about diabetes and cardiometabolic disease. It’s also why the College recently launched the Diabetes Collaborative Registry in collaboration with the American Diabetes Association, American College of Physicians, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the Joslin Diabetes Center. The goal behind the registry is to change the way diabetes is understood and treated by bringing together primary care physicians, endocrinologists, cardiologists and other diabetes care providers around the shared goal of improving diabetes care and patient outcomes. Participation in the registry is free and will allow for unprecedented opportunities to use real-world data across a broad spectrum of care providers in the U.S.

As part of Diabetes Awareness Month, the National Diabetes Education Program is focusing on the theme of “Diabetes Education and Support: Everyone Has a Role. What’s Yours?” I believe our role as cardiovascular professionals is to work with our primary care and endocrinology colleagues and take a holistic approach to diabetes care. By engaging more in diabetes management we will provide a great service to the patients that rely on us for their care.

*Note: Dr. Kosiborod will be representing the ACC at the International Diabetes Federation Conference in Vancouver from Nov. 30 – Dec. 4. He will also be speaking at a special interactive “NCD Café” session organized by supporters of the NCD Alliance. His specific panel discussion will take place on Dec. 2 and will focus on “Strengthening Health Systems for Diabetes and NCD Co-morbidities: Successful Approaches for Integrated Care.” Learn more.

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