Works by the modernist painter Charles Demuth (1883-1935) are now on display at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Add Demuth to the pantheon of notable Americans with diabetes. Demuth lived nearly his entire life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He had a hard life, being type 1 diabetic at a time before digital meters and pumps and all that good stuff. Not only that, he was diabetic at a time when insulin was only beginning to be used.

So, you may well ask: what did they do in the dark, dark pre-insulin days? Well, dear reader, the treatment was pretty unsophisticated. Starvation, basically. They got you eating as little as possible. Not surprisingly, life expectancy was not good in those days! Demuth suffered from a lack of energy and eyesight problems. Eventually, he was started on insulin and his health improved as a result.

For subject matter, Demuth frequently turned to the increasingly industrialized landscape of his hometown, Lancaster. Icons of the industrial skyline - smokestacks, water towers and the like - were often the subject of his paintings. The Amon exhibit is titled "Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster." The exhibit will remain on display in Fort Worth through October, when it will relocate to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL, then it's off to the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Click here to read more about Demuth and this new exhibit.

New York, New York -- it's a hell of a town. People from around the globe make their way to the Big Apple, just to get a look at the many extraordinary people, places and things that make NYC the great city it is. However, what they're probably not seeing is a citywide epidemic; one that continues to pervade at a staggering rate.

According to a new Health Department report, close to 500,000 New Yorkers -- which pretty much translates to one out of every eight adults -- have been diagnosed with with diabetes. In addition, there are an estimated 200,000 other people who have diabetes but are unaware of the fact that they do. The morbidity rate for diabetes-related deaths rose by 75 percent between 1990 and 2003.

The report also points out the disparities that exist between different racial, gender, and socio-economic groups. If you'd care to take a look at this report, you can find it at: www.nyc.gov/health

The New York City diabetes database, created to track the growth of (type 2) diabetes amongst the city's residents, has raised the ire of some who claim it violates their right to privacy. A reporter for the Staten Island Advance quotes resident Melissa: "Every time I go to have my blood sugar checked, my test results are being wired to the (city) Health Department. The idea of your privacy being taken away from you goes across all bounds." Melissa also says she doesn't think the city has justification to track patient records for something like diabetes, which is not contagious like, for example, tuberculosis.

My first instinct on reading this: cry me a river, Melissa. Residents should be aware their blood sugar levels are being sent to the health department, and they should be aware of why it is being done. But, really, isn't it a tad paranoid to worry too much about privacy? I mean, why should anyone care about your blood sugar levels out of all the thousands of others out there? If this is a way to gauge how type 2 diabetes is spreading in the NYC area, and if this data can help (as the city claims) determine how best to spend public money on containing the problem, I say go for it.

On the other hand, protecting peoples' privacy should be a factor for consideration, says Dr. Peter Sheehan, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and board member of the American Diabetes Association. "We applaud this kind of work," says Dr. Sheehan, but "we're somewhat concerned about the privacy of the individual." This concern is shared by the people entrusted with maintaining the database, says Dr. Diana K. Berger of the Health Department: "We are so careful to protect people's privacy," says Dr. Berger. She adds that only a handful of people have access to the room in which the data is stored, and data is encrypted as it makes its way from laboratories to the city.

All-in-all, it's a slightly unsettling case of weighing priorities: public good versus the right to privacy.

It's a pretty well-known fact that type 2 diabetes is hitting New York City hard. And the powers-that-be in the City are doing something about it: New York City was the first place in the nation to initiate a diabetes-tracking registry intended to guide healthcare spending to maximum effect.

So, just how bad is the situation? The city's health department just completed a major study on that very topic and made the results public this week. Some numbers: diabetes causes 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,000 amputations, 1,400 cases of kidney failure, and 4,700 diabetes-related deaths annually. The financial cost of treatment is a staggering $6.5 billion annually.

The report clearly shows that people in lower socioeconomic groups, clustered in a handful of poorer neighborhoods, are suffering disproportionately to the well-heeled and well-educated residents of the chic Upper East Side.

As is the case everywhere in the US - not to mention, globally - a great many people with type 2 diabetes or who are at risk for the disease do not know it, and city officials are aiming to exponentially increase awareness in coming years. The entire report is accessible online in PDF-form at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's website.

Texas is turning to number-crunching in an effort to contain soaring Type 2 diabetes rates. San Antonio will be the first city there to operate a diabetes registry designed to improve both the cost and quality of diabetes care in the state. The Texas state legislature approved the initiative this past spring. The project, which will be administered by the local health department, has been given the extremely imaginative title of Diabetes Registry. (Hey, makes it easy to find in the phone book.) The registry will gather its statistics from labs that perform diabetes blood tests.

The idea behind the project is not new: a similar scheme is already underway in New York City. Makes sense: before you decide how to cope with widespread Type 2 diabetes, you first need to assess exactly what the problems are. Who is missing out on care? Who are most likely to go undiagnosed? What could healthcare providers, teachers, or parents be doing differently?

Officials say that if the registry is successful in San Antonio, the registry may be extended throughout the entire state of Texas. Click here to read more on the community news site My San Antonio.

Drug giant Novo Nordisk's big white bus will soon roll into the USA. Officially known as the Novo Nordisk Changing Diabetes Bus, the vehicle is scheduled to visit a selection of towns in the USA between June and November. First, though, it's the turn of those lucky Canadians. The tour kicked off in Denmark back in September 2006 and goes under the banner "Changing Diabetes." Since Denmark, the bus and its crew have visited the following countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, Australia, China, Japan, and Canada. (Cool job, huh?) The Canada sojourn will last a few more days - 'till June 12, to be exact - then it's time to cross the border into the US. Last stop is New York City, where the tour will end on November 14, which is World Diabetes Day. Oddly, the Novo "bus" is actually a big truck, at least according to the pics I'm viewing on Novo's snazzy website. I guess calling it a bus tour makes it sound a tad folksier...more Partridge Family, less soulless pharmaceutical empire? But I digress...

The Changing Diabetes Bus tour is touted by Novo as an attitude-altering event with its high-tech educational displays that are housed on board the bus/truck. (See the website for a fun virtual tour of the bus.) A vehicle for change, if you will (yukkity yuk) designed to reach out to everyone: diabetics, their families, healthcare providers, as well as curious Average Joes. The specific purpose, says Novo, is to support the passing of a United Nations resolution on diabetes. Listen, I hate to be catty, but it's been an awareness-raising event in more ways than one, don't you agree? It's been a great promotional venture. An all around image-polishing exercise for Novo too. Hey, that's not to say this tour has not done good things to educate the public. I mean, it's good that mega-companies like that put aside money in the budget for feel-good, reach-out-to-the-community stuff. But let's be honest. Would they have put up the cash if their name wasn't plastered all over? Probably not.

On March 13, 2007, former President Bill Clinton joined global leaders to discuss ways to break the curve of the diabetes pandemic. The Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum held in New York City was hosted by Novo Nordisk and supported by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Yes, when people of this magnitude get together - you know it's serious business!

The forum convened the Masters of the Healthcare Universe to discuss ways to make diabetes a global health priority and ultimately, improve the way the disease is treated. The attendees were policymakers, patient organizations and healthcare professionals. It is estimated that 1 in 3 American children born in 2000 and beyond will develop type 2 diabetes. Worldwide, an estimated 246 million people have diabetes, and the number is expected to grow to 380 million within the next 20 years. A resolution today could prevent this harrowing disaster of tomorrow.

The Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum hopes to redefine healthcare around the needs of people with diabetes. Novo Nordisk has recognized that there is not a single answer to the diabetes pandemic. They seek to identify multiple actions to combat diabetes - from prevention to the treatment of serious complications. Lars Rebien Sørensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk says, . "Only by placing the person with diabetes at the center of care and changing how healthcare systems around the world approach the disease can this silent killer be defeated."

Novo Nordisk anticipates hosting a 2-day forum with this goal in mind. The forum will entail influential figures from around the world, participating in a series of workshops and dialogues designed to evoke a provocative debate about how to chart a course for changing diabetes management globally. For further details on the UN Resolution, please visit the unite for diabetes site.

Although New York City is a healthier place than it used to be - less people smoke, there are fewer new cases of HIV - diabetes is becoming epidemic. Mayor Bloomberg described the disease as a "vicious silent killer," but he's not taking the situation lying down. The city has established a citywide registry intended to paint a clearer picture of how diabetes is affecting the city's residents. According to the Gotham Gazette, this is the first attempt by an American city to track a chronic disease. The hope is that this registry will provide the solid foundation upon which future health planning decisions will be made. Facts and figures: New Yorkers are being affected by diabetes at a greater rate than average for the US. There are approximately 530,000 documented cases of the disease in the city. In addition, it is estimated that as many as 265,000 New Yorkers have diabetes but are, as yet, undiagnosed. 1,734 New Yorkers died of the disease in 2004, but this number does not include all of the deaths for which diabetes was the indirect cause. For more information about the citywide registry, check out the Gotham Gazette's article or go to the city's website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/diabetes/diabetes.shtml.