Summer Health Concerns for Patients

Number 4, this time of year what's the one thing that concerns you most about the health of your patients? So I think from a general perspective I worry that patients might not be eating as well as they would because of the heat and so they may have a loss of appetite and may not adjust their insulin levels correctly and so could become a little bit malnourished. Certainly dehydration plays quite a significant role so patients may not be drinking as much water as they should and often present with dehydration and the symptoms of dehydration. From a food perspective I think I would be most concerned about infection and the fact that patients would be getting blisters that they may not necessarily address quick enough, or they might develop areas of friction as a result of footwear and not realize that. Certainly, the other big thing we see is sunburn as a result of not realizing that patients have put their feet in the sun, or that they've walked on very hot surfaces and actually developed burns as a result of that. So certainly infection during the summer is quite a significant thing from a foot perspective, and the increased rate of ulceration and depth of alteration that we are likely to see during the summer.