Susan Cornell, Pharmd, CDCES, FAPAP, FADCES, Director of Experiential Education, Professor at the Pharmacy Department of Practice at the Midwest University College of Pharmacy in Downers Grove, Illinois, clinical pharmacist, and certified diabetes and education specialist with the Bolingbrook Christian Health Center and Multiple Medical Aspects glucose, including weight management, cardiovascular health and cognitive function, in an interview with Pharmacy®. Sharing ideas from American Diabetes Association 85th Scientific Sessions, she highlights the potential of new technologies such as continuous glucose surveillance sensors for early detection and prevention of diabetes, sharing a personal example of a student who discovered his diabetes through such technology. Cornell underlines the challenges to follow the care of rapidly evolving diabetes, to recommend continuous education programs, podcasts and webinaries as solutions to stay up to date. She also underlines the importance of installing a state of mind of learning throughout life among pharmacy students, encouraging them to recognize that their education continues far beyond obtaining the diploma.
Pharmacy time: Can you introduce yourself?
Susan Cornell, Pharmd, CDCE, Fapha, Fadces: Hi, my name is Susan Cornell, and I am director of experiential education and teacher of pharmacy practice at the Midwest University, College of Pharmacy in Downers Grove, Illinois. I also practice as a specialist in care and education in diabetes at the Bolingbrook Christian Health Clinic in Bolingbrook, in Illinois, and at the Will-Gundy medical clinic in Joliet, Illinois.
Pharmacy time: How do you plan that the data presented at the ADA 2025 shed light on your teaching or your clinical practice?
Cornell: I am very excited by the next meeting of the American Diabetes Association. Pending what they could share with new things, but the rumor mill, or the gossip mill, but we could call it, leans to look at the treatment options that treat more than diabetes. I think that the wave of the future in terms of diabetes looks again, beyond sugar. We note that many drug therapies that are made available today to help with weight management, cardiovascular health, the function of kidneys and liver, cognitive function, depression and alcohol or substance consumption disorder. I can continue again and again, but the other thing too is the technology that comes out. We look again; Rather than waiting for a problem, what can we do to prevent it? In terms of many glucose continuous monitoring therapies that are there, or sensors – technology, I should say. One of the things that I think we are looking forward to is, once again, perhaps in a preventive way, because imagine that if a person who does not know that he has diabetes wears a sensor and that they discover that they do it, or if they discover that their sugar begins to rise, and they can make changes of life in advance to prevent it. If I can share a very fast story, I spoke to a colleague, and to the pharmacy school, we have students where we make them sensors in the course of our diabetes option. I had a student with this sensor who has many family members who suffer from diabetes, but he has never been diagnosed. After carrying the sensor for 2 weeks, he went to see his doctor, and of course, he discovered that he was suffering from diabetes. Again, we can use it to take diabetes earlier and hope to do an intervention more quickly so that we can, once again, let people have a good quality life.
Pharmacy time: In your opinion, what are the most important opportunities / challenges for pharmacy education in the preparation of students in the evolutionary landscape of diabetes?
Cornell: Diabetes, like many diseases, is something that changes so quickly. I’m going to be honest, I have been training in the field of diabetes for decades, and I find it difficult to follow, especially with technology these days. Staying aware of this becomes one of the greatest challenges for those of us in the field, not to mention a general pharmacist, a practitioner or even students. One of the biggest challenges is, how to stay at the top? I think that a solution, if I can offer a solution, are proposed programs, continuous education programs, podcasts and webinaries. It is something that everyone can attend. They do not have to go to major annual meetings. Not that I do not say it, but it is another opportunity to stay in tune. It is like a living education, because it happens in real time. Why wait a year to discover the changes when you can discover them as they occur? In terms of students, I think students have trouble with the fact that they think they learn something about the pharmacy school, and they think they have finished, when we always tell them that their learning begins the day they get their diploma, because it is then that they must now stay top alone. For them to get into the habit at the start of the experience of what it is to stay up to date. Something they learned during their first year may not be the same when they arrive at their fourth year. Bringing them into this lifelong learning and ensuring that they are in contact with the directives.