Much work goes into this process to grow future CDEs who are competent to care for you and others with diabetes. Why have I described the CDE exam and the item writing, review, and statistical evaluation process? I wanted to make sure our families know that when they are treated by a multidisciplinary team of CDEs, they are receiving care from health professionals who have taken the extra step to ensure that they have the knowledge to administer current evidenced-based diabetes care. And, more importantly, the team is trained to use educational methods and techniques to enhance learning and reinforcement of the learned behaviors.

It is now time for me to go back to Washington, DC, and Children's National. By the way, our team currently has four nurse CDEs, two additional nurses are in the process of obtaining the necessary practice hours and will soon be applying to take the exam, one psychologist CDE (with another psychologist who will be sitting for the exam within the year), one dietician CDE, and myself as a physician CDE.