Patient Guide

About The Services At Bull Family Diabetes Center

Bull Family Diabetes Center is a practice specializing in the treatment and management of diabetes. Mrs. Jean Bull was a surgical nurse and volunteer at MVH for many years. She lost her husband and son to complications of diabetes. Wanting to improve diabetes care in the Dayton area, she generously gave money to fund a diabetes clinic for five years; then it was used to help establish the Bull Family Diabetes Center.

My name is Miguel Parilo. I'm the medical director of Bull Family Diabetes Center. We are located in Dayton, Ohio, on the corner of Patterson and Stewart. We are affiliated with Premier Physician Network and Miami Valley Hospital, and we are the region's first comprehensive diabetes center.

I'm Rochelle Southard and I'm one of the Certified Diabetes educators here at Bull Family.

Diabetes can vary in people making it very individualized in the treatment.

There are many different forms of diabetes. By far the most common type is type 2 diabetes, what may have been termed adult-onset in the past. Um, it is increasing quite a bit, ah, in the world and our community – for many reasons: One reason perhaps is increasing incidence of obesity.

Diabetes is honestly, in simple terms, is a, um, an increase in blood sugar and a decrease in insulin, so it's a mismatch. You're not getting enough insulin, you have too much blood sugar in your blood stream.

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be scary but at Bull Family Diabetes Center they want to arm patients with knowledge.

So most of our patients are referred by a primary physician or other specialist. We like to have a primary physician because that person will remain the champion of our patient's case and , and address not just their diabetes, but all the other things that are important with our patients' lives.

It's a lifelong disease that patients may come to see me a few times a year and I will, ah, prescribe medications and help advise them on what to do, but every day that person is going home with their disease and so our focus is really to teach that individual the proper skills of nutrition, of exercise, of management of medications, monitoring of blood sugar, overseeing complications and preventing complications. Because it's that daily challenge of diabetes that I, and management of that challenge, that I think makes the difference between an uncontrolled and a controlled person with diabetes, so we try and give that instruction and motivation so the patient can, on a daily basis, address it.

So having the right education and understanding of my disease can make all the difference between success or failure. Um, if I understand a complicated process, if I'm the master of that, I can win the battle. I can have a good fight.

Diet, exercise, medication and information are key to managing diabetes.

We have medical assistants, certified diabetes educators who are RNs, a certified diabetes educator who is a dietician, um, we have a biller, 3 physicians, we have a nurse practitioner that is based at the hospital.

Our goal is basically to give patients the information and the resources to be able to take care of their own diabetes 24/7.

They learn how to eat, what is a carbohydrate, what is a protein, what is a fat, how do I know what to eat, portion sizes is key when we're doing diet. A lot of our type 2's are trying to lose weight, so weight control can be a big issue.

If you’re a patient wanting to come to the Bull Family Diabetes Center, typically we have physician referral, is important. We need physician referral. That can be any physician. It can be an eye doctor, it can be your primary care physician, and it's just basically a phone call to our office or a fax with the information about that patient. We then call them and schedule them to come into the Bull Family Diabetes Center.

Instruction or education for diabetes is key. Ah, I may see this person a few times throughout the year and I see my job as a mentor, as a motivator, as a cheerleader. I think we all do and I think that's what makes our center somewhat unique. We all come with the same goals and principles of empowering the patient to win the fight.