Barbara Simon, MD

American Board of Internal Medicine - Subspecialty Examination in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism

• Dean’s Award for Excellent in Education, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University - 10/2022
• Top 25 Teacher, Internal Medicine Residency Program, Thomas Jefferson University - 6/2022
• Ambulatory Attending Award, Jefferson Internal Medicine Residency Program, Thomas Jefferson University - 5/2022
• Top Doctor, Philadelphia Magazine (Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.) 2016-19
• Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching, Class of 2019 - 4/2018
• Alpha Omega Alpha, Alumni Award - 5/2012
• Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology - 5/2010

My clinical and research interests are in diabetes; including a focus on patient education and empowerment, diabetes technologies, disparities in diabetes treatment access and quality improvement in diabetes mellitus. 

Why did you choose this specialty and in which diseases are you focused? I am an educator and have always enjoyed teaching students, trainees and my patients. I have also been very passionate about improving care for people living with diabetes. I have family members with diabetes, and I can see the daily struggle to manage the disease. If diabetes remains uncontrolled, it can lead to devastating complications. However, there are interventions that can help prevent many of these bad outcomes. For example, providing education about how to take a medication properly, teaching people to use a new diabetes technology, or reviewing how certain foods impact blood glucose often makes a big difference.

What research are you currently involved in? I am the Principle Investigator on a large clinical trial that is enterprise wide. It is a real-world or pragmatic trial, where patients on oral diabetes medication are followed for 1-2 years to monitor outcomes. I completed a project on increasing diabetic patient access to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices at our largest Internal Medicine Practice; the findings were presented at The American Diabetes Association in 2022. We are in the midst of replicating this project at our Internal Medicine Residency clinic. I am also working with another faculty member on a quality improvement project utilizing pharmacists to help our diabetic patients with insulin use between their physician visits.

How will research specifically help my patients? My research involves the improvement of access to diabetes technology and to diabetes medications (with cardiovascular benefits) to patients. Preventive care and decreasing the risk of complications by improving equitable and affordable access to newer treatments and devices is essential.

What patient support/education programs at Jefferson are you involved in? I teach and direct the endocrine content for the second-year students at Sidney Kimmel Medical College and instruct in the case base learning program. I am an Associate Program Director for our Internal Medicine Residency Program, and help to train our residents in diabetes care, working with them in clinics and on diabetes quality improvement projects.

Importance of philanthropy in research, education, and patient support at Jefferson. The Jefferson community focuses on providing optimal care for our patients through our esteemed physicians and cutting-edge research. Research performed throughout Jefferson enables us to provide our patients access to the highest quality treatments, and develop a pipeline for even better patient management in the future. Moreover, patient education and support is critical to the ability of patients and their providers to understand and optimally manage their care.