SAVING LIVES THROUGH EDUCATION

KRYMSKAYA WORKS TIRELESSLY TO IMPROVE LIFE FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

By Patty Lee

Marina Krymskaya is passionate about both learning and teaching.

Before she immigrated to the United States 15 years ago, she practiced nursing in Russia. But after arriving in New York, she enrolled in Long Island’s Molloy College.

“Because I came when I was not that young, I conscientiously went back to school and it was really rewarding,” Krymskaya said.

Her determination paid off, and she eventually received a bachelor’s degree in nursing and landed a job at Beth Israel Medical Center in 1998.

There, Krymskaya, who is now the assistant director of the hospital’s Friedman Diabetes Institute at the Division of Endocrinology, turned her passion for learning into teaching. She became involved with an education program for Russian-speaking patients. Part of her job involved going to different departments to help with translations. It was during those rotations that Krymskaya became interested in diabetes education.

“The statistics are scary and one of the ways to prevent diabetes from spreading is educating people on how they can avoid the disease or, if they have it, how to avoid the complications,” she said.

Krymskaya decided to go back to school again, to get a Master of Science as an adult nurse practitioner and to become certified as a diabetes educator.

One of the most important aspects of Beth Israel’s diabetes program is teaching self-management.

“In order to avoid the complications, people need to learn how to take care of themselves,” Krymskaya said.

In addition to weekly classes with the program’s patients, the institute also holds health fairs and other diabetes-related education events around the city. The program has been so successful that it received recognition from the American Diabetes Association in 2007. And it has continued to expand.

Krymskaya recently organized a program for deaf people with diabetes in collaboration with sign language interpreters, and developed an interactive website for diabetes patients.

“She has a very interesting combination of qualities that make her very effective. First of all, she really likes working with people and patients,” said Dr. Leonid Poretsky, director of the Friedman Diabetes Institute. “She’s very knowledgeable in all kinds of diabetes information. A lot of physicians, even me, turn to her for advice.”

According to Krymskaya, she hopes to continue learning—this time through research—“to evaluate what we do.” Poretsky calls her a very “effective” researcher and Krymskaya’s work has already been published in medical journals.
But her focus is ultimately on improving the institute and helping more diabetes patients.

“The biggest reward is when you see the improvement and see that they follow the recommendations,” Krymskaya said. “It’s a matter of understanding the disease and managing it.”

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