Monthly Archives: June 2017

Disappointed.

June 9, 2017 – 9:18 am

That moment when someone who’s inspired you turns out to be a jerK? I experienced that this week.

There’s a doctor in Las Vegas, who goes by the moniker ZDoggMD online. He’s gotten a lot of notoriety over the years, been on cable television news, recorded videos, and basically, developed a significant social media following. I’m not going to go into too much detail… in my opinion, he doesn’t deserve any more help than he already has.

So why am I writing about him then? I think I need to get this off of my chest.

I saw Dr. Zubin Damania deliver the keynote address at the initial HealtheVoices Conference two years ago. I was inspired by how he seemed to take a different approach to health care, and how to deliver the important messages that patients needed to hear.

I’m a big fan of Turntable Health, the health care initiative he got off the ground in downtown Las Vegas with the help of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. After seeing Dr. Damania speak in 2015, I made an appointment to tour Turntable Health when I was in Vegas the following March. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the story I wrote about my tour published; I couldn’t get my facts double checked by the staff there, and I didn’t feel it was right to publish something that might not be entirely accurate. But I was very impressed by Turntable Health, and by Dr. Z, as the staff there refers to him.

Fast forward to this week. Using his ZDogg online persona on Twitter and Instagram, he posted a photo designed to shame and guilt People With Diabetes. It was remarkably horrible. It was junior high school level crass.

Cue the immediate backlash from the diabetes community. Many advocates stepped forward to voice their disapproval. Reaction was swift, and at times, it was pretty intense. Which elicited responses from Dr. Z himself.

Later, he took to Facebook Live, along with a couple of friends (or employees or accolytes or something), and he tried to explain the posting. He went to great lengths to explain that he was only reposting an existing meme. Yeah, that makes it aaalll better.

He complained a lot about Type 1s and how they were overly sensitive, and how this post had nothing to do with them, and how it was really directed at Type 2s. At the end of the video, he deleted the post, and then mocked deleting the post, both at the end of the video and afterward in comments on the video.

It’s easy to get angry about behavior like this. It attempted to shame People With Diabetes… ALL People With Diabetes. It allowed people to laugh at those living with a chronic condition they will have to live with the rest of their lives. It gave voice to countless medical professionals who believe the message in his post is the proper way to treat People With Diabetes.

In addition to violating the sensitivities of everyone who believes in treating others with common decency, Dr. Damania violated two of the most important tenets of internet communication:

1. Consider carefully all the implications of what you’re posting, before you post.
It’s like salt in your stew: you can always add more, but it’s really hard to take any away.

2. You can almost never recover your reputation by complaining about the people you’ve already offended.
It’s the social media equivalent of kicking someone when they’re down. It confirms your status as the bully.

I’ve posted things I’ve had to take back. At one point or another, just about everyone does. In fact, two of the most difficult things for me are to apologize for posting something that bothered someone else; and to be happy for people who get to experience things I’ve always wanted to experience.

Those things are hard for me to do, but the difficulty I have with them is no excuse not to do them. In my case, I must express these things exactly when they will mean the most. Even when I’m not sure how sorry I am that I bothered someone, or I’m not sure how happy I am for someone else.

It’s not important how I feel about those things. It’s important how they feel about those things.

There are gray areas in reacting to social media backlash too. But what I’ve seen through this episode… from the original post, to the hurtful comments from others who chose to Do No Harm by becoming healthcare professionals, to leaving the post up and letting animosity boil until deleting the post toward the end of a less than sincere video rant… shows me that for Dr. Z, there is no gray area. He didn’t leave himself any.

If you know me, you know I’m the kind of person who tries to consider all sides of an issue before saying anything about it. I admit it… I was inspired by Dr. Z previously, and I wanted to believe he would act with compassion, if not empathy in this matter. I not only wanted to believe he would, I wanted him to act with compassion so I could believe in him again.

Which leads me to my final piece of social media wisdom: It’s okay to be unhappy. Bitterness? You own your bitterness yourself.

You have to live with your bitterness. You have to live with the cause of it. You can’t escape it without contrition.

Will I have more to say about this? Probably, in another form, in another venue. Truly, I am disappointed. I want to laud Dr. Damania, and I want to celebrate his successes. After this week, however, I find myself fearing for his patients, and fearing for the patients and acquaintances of those he has influenced.

By StephenS | Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Diabetes By The Numbers: Tidepool’s Big Data Donation Project.

June 7, 2017 – 9:18 am

Truth be told, I look to Christopher Snider as the gold standard for quality diabetes interviews and podcasts. I’ve wanted him on this podcast for some time.

Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you why Christopher was part of the podcast this week. He has a new role, as Community Manager at Tidepool.

Tidepool is a terrific nonprofit organization that helps provide a free, open platform where people with diabetes, doctors, researchers, and others can either upload or view diabetes data. Christopher explains it way better than I do, so I will encourage you to listen for that.

We spend a good amount of time talking about Tidepool’s recently announced Big Data Donation Project. Tidepool has agreed to donate ten percent of any fees they receive for selling your de-identified data to researchers. The money will go to one of eight diabetes nonprofits that you probably know well. Christopher explains it way better than I do, so I will encourage you to listen for that too.

There’s also a vague reference to Odin, the Norse god.

DBTN

Reference Material – Click below for more information on this topic

Christopher Snider is Community Manager at Tidepool:
Tidepool.org

To find out more about Tidepool’s Big Data Donation Project, go to:
Tidepool.org/BigData

Christopher Snider is host of two amazing podcasts:
Just Talking Podcast
Mark All That Apply

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes By The Numbers | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Review: The Accu-Chek Guide.

June 1, 2017 – 9:18 am

Full disclosure: I was sent a new Accu-Chek Guide by Roche so I could try it out. I was not asked to write about it. All opinions, good and bad, are my own. Read on for my thoughts.

I’ll be honest… I’ve been a fan of the Accu-Chek glucose meters going back to the Accu-Chek Nano (which I still have two of and still use), and I’m about to tell you why. In fact, there are three reasons why I’ve liked these meters for years.

1. Accuracy. Since my first Accu-Chek Nano, the readings I’ve received have been something I could rely on. Even after beginning on my Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, I’ve noticed that my results are almost always within 10 mg/dL of my Dexcom readings. Actually, they’ve been nearly always within 5 mg/dL of my Dexcom readings. Hard to get more accurate than that.

2. Consistency. Those accurate readings have remained, no matter how long I’ve used a meter. It’s really great when you have a feeling that your meter will give you result that you can count on, even if it’s high or low.

3. Improvement. Even though my Nano was pretty good four years ago, my Aviva Connect meter, which I received just about a year ago, has been great too. It’s also been something that’s been able to be synced with mySugr and Tidepool accounts, and believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of meters that are doing that, or doing it with Bluetooth technology.

While I can’t say I know a lot about the company, I can say that I’ve been happy with what they’ve produced for a number of years. So… how does this new Accu-Chek Guide measure up? Here are the pros and cons… since I like happy endings, I’ll give you the cons first.

Cons: Actually, the only con I can think of (feel free to add your own in the Comments section, if you have one) is the marketing of the new container for strips. It’s true that when you open a brand new container, the strips are neatly lined up and easy to access, and they don’t spill if you turn the container upside down. Once you’re about halfway through though, it’s easier to knock one or two (or a few) out of place and then they’re much more likely to fall out when you don’t want them to. Still, it’s not like the previous containers were that great. They went for an improvement, and I think it is an improvement, just not as good an improvement as they’re touting.

Pros: See my notes above about accuracy, consistency, and improvement. In addition, probably the biggest thing that makes me a fan of this meter are the strips themselves. The strips have a flat surface, meaning that instead of having to get blood on a narrow part of the strip to get a proper reading, you can actually get the blood on any part of the strip to get a proper reading.

Check this out (video courtesy of me):

When I saw that for the first time, I was hooked.

Now, let’s talk about price. Not the meter price, because you know glucose meter makers will make their meters extremely inexpensive in order to get you to buy the strips, which is where the real money is made. Roche, makers of the Accu-Chek Guide, is doing something different when it comes to pricing on strips. For people who have trouble affording the expense of strips, they’re implementing something called the Simple Pay Savings Program.

Here’s how it works:
You can get a savings card from your doctor, or from Roche. With the savings card, the first vial of strips would cost $19.99. Each additional vial after that, for the same prescription, is an additional $10.00. That means that two vials (100 strips) would cost $29.99, three would cost $39.99, and so on. You can use the savings care to get up to 12 vials, or 600 strips, per prescription.

All in all, I find this meter another compelling offering from a maker I trust. You might have noticed that I’ve almost entirely stopped reviewing products here, mostly because I get more offers to review things than I have time to write, and also because I want to only endorse things I truly believe in. Take this with a grain of salt if you must, but I really like the Guide.

Please remember that other than the meter and 50 strips, I’m not getting anything for this review. If you have a different experience with the Accu-Chek Guide or other meters from Roche, let me know in the comments below. As always, your experience may be different, which is just one of the reasons why we should communicate with one another.

I should also mention that Diabetes Mine did a fabulous and more detailed review of this meter last week. CLICK HERE to check it out.

Finding diabetes devices you can rely on is a tall order sometimes. Personally, I’m glad to have another meter I can count on.

By StephenS | Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments (7)