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Tom Wilemon
Information Officer
I am an information officer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Previously, I was a health care reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville.
Articles
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Tom Wilemon avoided jargon like "social determinants," instead revealing the tragedy behind diabetes, a disease he describes as "so pervasive, so obvious, so accepted here in the South that people do not see it for the public health threat that it is."
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Experts debate whether fast food trumps soul food as a contributing factor to diabetes in the south.
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Dialysis is lifeline for many as kidney failure in Tennessee has doubled in the last two decades.
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While a citywide effort promotes healthier eating and more physical activity, there is no comprehensive, coordinated campaign to target diabetes where it is most prevalent.
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Savitri R. Matthews, director of programs for the American Diabetes Association in Nashville, is walking proof that people can succeed in warding off the disease. Matthews used to weigh 296 pounds. Now, she weighs 138.
Tennessee is a state with an obesity epidemic, a fact that a team of reporters at The Tennessean has been exploring from many angles for the past two years and that Gov. Bill Haslam identified earlier this year as the state’s top health priority.