Akshay Jain, MD, is triple board-certified in endocrinology, internal medicine, and obesity medicine, and practices in Surrey, British Columbia. He serves as the president of the Canadian Chapter of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology and also contributes to Medscape.
Although Akshay Jain, MD, is from a family of physicians, he was initially convinced he'd go into engineering. But after his father underwent triple bypass surgery, he set out on a path to study medicine.
Jain trained in internal medicine in Rochester, New York, and in 2013 finished a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at City of Hope/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He took that knowledge and spent 2 years in India studying management of diabetes and endocrine disruptors.
"I saw how diabetes and obesity are so closely intertwined," Jain says. He remembers patients in India saying they would have made different choices if only they'd known about diabetes and its raft of complications.
"Just focusing on diabetes would be akin to having tunnel vision," he says. "We need to have a more comprehensive outlook."
Jain has worked to bring preventive education to vulnerable groups, both where he practices in British Columbia and in South Asia. He focuses on increasing education for all healthcare providers in South Asia, with an emphasis on diabetes and obesity in primary care.
"We empower primary care providers in medicine...and that's what we need to bring down rising [diabetes] incidence," says Jain, who serves as the president of the Canadian Chapter of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology and also contributes to Medscape.
In Vancouver, British Columbia, he has worked with children and enlisted them to help educate their families about healthy eating, with a focus on areas that are hotspots for diabetes. Awareness of diabetes management — and preventing it in the first place — are crucial, he says.
"The past 25 years were more about the management of complications of conditions," Jain says. "For the next 25 years, we should be doing more education about prevention of complications."
As part of Medscape's celebration of our 25th anniversary this year, we're recognizing 25 young physicians who are rising stars in medicine, poised to become future leaders of their fields. View the full list here.
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Cite this: Medscape at 25: Recognizing Medicine's Rising Stars - Medscape - Dec 07, 2020.
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