Winning With TYpe 1 Diabetes By Learning How To Use Continuous Glucose Monitoring CGM

Stephen W. Ponder, MD CDE FAAP

Stephen W. Ponder, MD, FAAP, CDE, is a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist with Baylor Scott and White Healthcare in Temple, Tex.

His interest in diabetes telehealth began in 2002 with his involvement in research and development of the GlucoMON®-ADMS (automated diabetes management system) by Diabetech. This project led him to conduct a several pilots using the cloud based system culminating in a 1-year randomized controlled trial in preadolescent children with type 1 diabetes. The results were published in the March 2012 issue of Diabetes Care. In 2006, he developed a type 1 diabetes follow-up practice model called “Diabetes Housecall,” engaging families of his patients who reside in remote areas of Texas via webcam visits directly between his office and their homes.

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Dr. Ponder has also been active in other areas of diabetes telehealth, including SMS (short message service)-based population health education and motivation, as well as real-time blood glucose monitoring and acute patient-management strategies using the resulting data.

A Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) since 1989, Dr. Ponder chaired the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators (NCBDE) in 1996. He has been active in diabetes education certification at the national level for more than two decades and served on the 2018 Practice Analysis Committee of the NCBDE, as well as numerous other committees within that organization over the past 25 years.

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He is a member of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Diabetes Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and The Endocrine Society.

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The American Association of Diabetes Educators chose Ponder as 2018 Diabetes Educator of the Year. The Texas AADE Chapter chose him as 2017 Diabetes Educator of the Year.  

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He has volunteered for 37 consecutive years at one of the largest residential children’s diabetes camping programs in the United States (Texas Lions Camp in Kerrville, Texas) and has served as its medical director since 1989. He has also served on numerous local, state, and national committees and has delivered presentations on pediatric diabetes and childhood obesity in numerous national and international venues.

His clinical interests beyond telehealth include continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pump therapy, and the behavioral aspects of quality diabetes self-management as they relate to people of all ages. He co-chaired the development of one of the first Child Obesity Toolkits for the Texas Pediatric Society in 2005 and, in 2002, coined the S.A.F.E. acronym (Soft drinks or sugary beverages, After meal snacks, Fast foods, and Exercise) for prevention of childhood obesity.

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Dr. Ponder’s passion for all things diabetes care–related is fueled by his half-century of living well with the condition himself (diagnosed on 1 March 1966) and his deep interest in inspiring others with diabetes on their own paths. Since 1989, he has written hundreds of columns on diabetes topics for regional newspapers across Texas, and he hosted a morning weekly segment about child health on local television. He has also been active in local and regional advocacy efforts to reduce childhood obesity and improve access to quality diabetes education through innovative telehealth technologies.

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In 2015, he co-founded the Feed My Sheep Children's Free Clinic in Temple, Texas. The clinic serves homeless and children uninsured and is one of only two child-only free clinics in Texas. The clinic is staffed by medical and community volunteers, plus pediatric residents from the residency training program he directs at McLane Children's Hospital in Temple, Texas.

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He is the creator of Sugar Surfing™ and co-author of the book of the same name. Sugar Surfing describes the discipline of diabetes self-management ‘in the moment’ using frequent pattern management enabled by either continuous glucose monitoring or frequent BG checks using a standard hand held blood sugar monitoring device. Dr. Ponder provides regional and international workshops on the topic of Sugar Surfing.

The mission of his non-profit corporation called Dynamic Diabetes Management, Inc. is to provide empowering education to more persons with diabetes wishing to apply this progressive system of self management.