MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Charles D. Ponte, Pharm.D., professor in the WVU School of Pharmacy Department of Clinical Pharmacy and the School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine, provided a presentation as part of an educational symposium for the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 71st Scientific Sessions in June. 
Dr. Ponte participated in the session, “Drug-Induced Dysglycemia.” His presentation focused on how common medications can contribute to alterations in blood glucose levels.
“Although most people know that diabetes can affect blood glucose levels, there are also a number of medications that can cause blood sugar levels to be abnormal,” Ponte said.
Ponte educated health care professionals about the medications that can affect glucose regulation and how to monitor patients who need to take medication that may affect blood glucose levels.
“It may just be increasing or decreasing the medication dose, or stopping the medication altogether if there is an adverse reaction,” Ponte said. “But the key factor is to monitor your patient to see what is happening and what will work best to treat him or her.”
His lecture was recorded for DiabetesInsight, a monthly audio Continuing Medical Education (CME) program created through a partnership with the ADA and the Audio-Digest Foundation.
Ponte’s session was also selected to be included in MD Conference Express, the ADA’s official conference highlights publication which serves as a reference for meeting attendees and ADA members, through a peer-reviewed process. Information is selected based on how it influences clinical practice.
Dr. Ponte has been a faculty member at the WVU School of Pharmacy for over 30 years. In addition to clinical work, his scholarly interests include diabetes education and management, gynecologic infections and pain management.
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