by John Pollara, Editor 
Patient Education Update

Ginger Kanzer-Lewis was a friend of Milner-Fenwick and we are saddened by her passing in August 2014. Over the years, Ginger wrote numerous articles for Patient Education Update on how healthcare professionals can better teach and connect with their patients. Invariably those were the most read in those issues. There are links below listing all those articles and the titles alone reveal what she was most passionate about. Your time would be well spent reading any of them to learn more about Ginger, people, and improving the quality of care.

A past president (2000-2001) of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), Ginger was an advocate for meaningful and joyful patient education. She was a tireless and dedicated leader in the diabetes community nationally and internationally. In May 2011, she brought the first recognized AADE education program to China. She is someone who made a difference in many people’s lives both directly and indirectly.

Ginger was always willing to go the path less travelled if that is what it took. She wrote a 3-part article, Healthcare Without Walls, in this publication about her personal journey to deliver patient education in innovative ways by getting out of the classroom and into the real world (also see the below video). Whether it was providing diabetes education to dock mates near her houseboat home in Marathon, Florida or bumping up against insurance companies or the Medicare reimbursement bureaucracy  (“They don’t know how to handle me since I don’t work at a hospital or at a physician’s office.”), obstacles were something to break down or go around.

In Healio, the current AADE president Joan Bardsley remembers Ginger this way, “Everyone knew Ginger, not just because she was president from 2000 to 2001, but she was a vivacious presence, offered a wealth of knowledge and experience and was a true leader. You couldn’t ask for a better advocate than Ginger. People, particularly legislators, couldn’t say no to her.”

Kathy Berkowitz, APRN, FNP-BC, CDE followed Ginger as AADE president in 2001. She says, “Ginger was a remarkable educator and one of the most truly passionate people I’ve worked with. She had the ability to make learning fun. She used creative methods in face-to-face teaching and used a lot of humor and stories too. One thing about Ginger is that she embraced everybody personally and professionally. We had so much fun together.”

Former AADE president and Vice President for Clinical Advocacy at WellDoc, Malinda Peeples, RN, MS, CDE, summarizes Ginger’s impact saying, “Ginger Kanzer-Lewis epitomized patient centered care as she led countless clinicians to become diabetes educators.”

AADE colleague, Michelle Sheldon-Rubio, RN, BSN, CDE describes Ginger this way, “She was a spitfire, the Eveready energizer bunny. She got things done.”

Ginger, you will be missed!