After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, is there a benefit to having an endocrinologist provide your diabetes care or can an internal medicine doctor specializing in diabetes care provide the same level of required care?

This is a good question. Endocrinologists are internists who have had additional training. Most endocrinologists see diabetes patients because they make up the largest group of patients with endocrine disorders. There is nothing that says an internist cannot take care of a patient with type 1 diabetes. A good rule of thumb is to consider that seeing an endocrinologist may be good if you are not achieving the goals you need to attain under current practice. This is the case no matter who you see. Sometimes, endocrinologists have additional resources to help with patient care. They may have a diabetes care team with nurses and dietitians that help make care easier to address. Patients with type 1 diabetes have seen endocrinologists because glucose control is often more difficult to obtain and is more intensive. However, if you have an internist that feels comfortable taking care of your child, that is not necessarily bad. Since many patients with type 1 diabetes are using insulin pumps and using continuous glucose monitoring, it is important to make sure that internist has experience with those technologies.

JTL