The clinical trial that I’ve been participating in since April has officially resumed after a brief hiatus.
The trial is designed to measure how patients handle their glucose levels while interacting with a specially-designed website. The purpose of the website is to produce data and information to patients based on daily logging of BGs, meal intake, exercise, and other factors. I’ll be uploading Dexcom™ G4 data every day too. The main goal of the study is to “improve glycemic outcome”. A lofty goal, and let’s hope it’s achieved. It’s really much more than I’ve just described. If you really want to find out everything that it’s about, check out the full description at the clinicaltrials.gov website:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01767831?term=ibolused&rank=1
So anyway, after taking a break so some web development issues could be ironed out, we’re back at it. I think the hardest thing about starting up again is going to be learning to swim with the Dexcom™ stuck in my gut. Those turns and pushing off the wall will feel funny at times, but I’m sure I can get over it. Besides, I only have to swim another two weeks anyway to get ready for my triathlon, and then I can take a break from it.
As before, I’ll try to give an update every week or so to let you know how it’s going. There’s only so much I can reveal while the study is ongoing, but I’ll let you in on as much as I can. Once the study is published, I’ll be able to talk about it in full if you’re still interested.
If you want to find out more about the kind of studies taking place out there, just go to the clinicaltrials.gov website and put Diabetes into the search box. A recent search found 9,688 separate entries.
I’m glad we’re starting this up again. And again, I hope it’s a big success.
P.S. This study is still recruiting participants! It’s a great way to get your feet wet in the clinical trials swimming pool, so to speak. Also, it’s a great opportunity to try out the Dexcom™ G4. If you think you might be interested in participating, send an e-mail to: mkm6x@virginia.edu
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Comments
That sounds fascinating. I was thinking of emailing them so that I could participate. What sort of hoops do you have to jump through to get started though?
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Elizabeth, you’d have to answer some questions (think standard health questions) and have A1cs done at the beginning and the end of the trial. There’s more to it than this, of course, but the folks at UVA can answer them far better than I can. Also, you never know… if this doesn’t work for you, they might have a different trial that would suit you even better. I just expressed my interest (a lot) and they eventually decided I was a good fit for this study.
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Well thank you so much for this information. I will be contacting them tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can be apart of this. I think it would be a great experience and I’d be helping to collect data. Very cool.
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Thanks for participating in the study, Stephen. I’ve done a few in the past, and I really think it’s important to stay involved with this sort of thing. How else are they going to figure stuff out, right?
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