Team approach — Diabetes doctors work with patients to customize care
By Jacob Luecke
This story is featured in the Summer 2013 edition of myBoone Health magazine. Click here for a free subscription.
Diabetes is a challenging disease to treat.
It’s a problem where education can often be as effective as medication. It’s a disease where a patient’s story is sometimes just as important as their test results.
For the two doctors establishing a new diabetes clinic at Boone Hospital Center, those challenges are what make their work enjoyable.
“Diabetes is a disease that does not follow the rule of one size fits all,” said Fadi Siyam, MD. “You have to customize it, you have to redesign it for each patient individually.”
Dr. Siyam and Sonya Addison, MD, are teaming up to open the Boone Diabetes and Endocrine Center, located in Broadway Medical Plaza III. Call 573-815-7146 for an appointment.
Both doctors said their work will focus on treating patients as individuals. They want to do everything they can to help patients manage their diabetes.
“I’ve always been a people person, I like to talk to people and interact with them,” said Dr. Addison. “When you’re helping treat a chronic disease, you get to know your patients and interact with them a lot. That’s what I really enjoy, that relationship.”
Dr. Addison grew up in Fairfax, Mo., in the northwest corner of the state. She came to mid-Missouri to attend Central Methodist University.
She originally majored in music — she plays flute and piccolo — but quickly changed to pre-med. She completed medical school, residency and her fellowship at the University of Missouri.
Her father is a respiratory therapist and her mother is a registered nurse.
“I grew up around medicine,” Dr. Addison said. “I really wanted to be a doctor since I was about six.”
Dr. Siyam grew up in a family of pharmacists, which also made it natural for him to pursue a medical career.
He grew up in Jerusalem and moved to Jordan around the time he started high school. He attended medical school in Jordan and then moved back to Jerusalem for his internship.
He came to the University of Missouri to become an internal medicine specialist. During his training, he realized he most enjoyed working with diabetic patients. So that’s were he decided to focus his career.
He said mid-Missouri has been very welcoming and friendly. He enjoys living in Columbia where there are opportunities to spend time outdoors and listen to classical music concerts.
“When I had an opportunity to stay in mid-Missouri, I took it,” he said.
He also likes biking and photographing architecture.
When she’s not serving patients, Dr. Addison enjoys spending time with her husband, Justin, and her son, Jake. She is expecting a second child this summer.
The family also owns Tucker’s Fine Jewelry in downtown Columbia.
When the Boone Diabetes and Endocrine Center opens this summer, the physicians look forward to working alongside Boone Hospital’s existing Diabetes and Weight Management services.
“Education, in our subspecialty, is so integral, it’s so important,” said Dr. Siyam. “It’s totally inseparable in the management of a diabetic to have a good educator by your side to help you with a patient.”
The Boone Diabetes and Endocrine Center is accepting appointments. Drs. Siyam and Addision said they are eager to meet new patients and help them improve their health.
“The results are very tangible. With good management, you can see your patients get better,” Dr. Addison said. “Having that kind of success is very important to us.”