Apps for HTN, DM?

[MILOBRI]

Does anyone have a good app or other resource for managing hypertension and diabetes mellitus? I graduate at the end of this year and feel very uncomfortable managing these 2 conditions.

[staphylococci, NP]

I've been enjoying the UCSF Outpatient Medicine Handbook for quickly looking up things during clinical. For hypertension management, here are the JNC8 guidelines. Cholesterol management guidelines here, and diabetes mellitus management guidelines here. Good luck!

[vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN]

So I see that you are a new student. These conditions are very prevalent. As one teacher told me about 6 yrs ago, these pts suck up the health care dollars and so much time / money is spent taking care of their various problems resulting from not keeping their numbers. WNL. (Which can usually be achieved via a combination of meds, expertise and diet)

I thought my teacher sounded harsh when she said this, so I asked the MD at my next doctor appointment whether this was true. He told me yes. (I was taking prereqs then)

For me to learn about these problems, I drew pictures / schematics of the affected organs.

I also visualized the people I knew IRL with these dx and correlated their symptoms/meds/etc with the expected symptoms and meds.

I didn't focus on details at first, just the big picture ....I learned ace inhibitors, beta blockers and calcium channel blockers.

I learned the 3 Ps of hyperglycemia

And that a hypo glycemic person is cold, clammy and needs candy.

As for me, my basic explanation of HTN is that the pressure is too high within the blood vessels. This causes an increased risk of popping a vessel-ie stoke. I imagine a water hose being clamped off--this makes the pressure too high. I also imagine the kidneys being unable to keep up with the increased demand and the filters being blown apart.

For DM, I imagine the blood is filled with sugar making it syrup-like and therefore it's not as easy for it to reach the organs--you can then imagine the problems associated with insufficient oxygen, the eyes don't get 02, the kidneys are damaged because they can't handle the "syrupy/thick/ sugary" blood. etc.

For me, focusing on the pathophysiology of a normal person versus a person with these diseases helped me to "get it". I used to be clue-less, too.

[000L4J000]

I purchasedPocket Primary Care by Kiefer & Chong from Amazon. It is a small pocket sized reference book that has algorithms for many diseases including diabetes and htn, with signs/symptoms, physical exam, diagnostics, and education for each disease often seen in primary care. Extremely worth the $$ IMO during clinicals.