Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

News broke this week that Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition has joined forces with the larger Diabetes Advocacy Alliance. I’ve spent some time volunteering for DPAC in the past, but regarding this announcement, I don’t know any more than what is publicly available. Let’s take a look at that:

Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition is a 501(c)4 organization that helps to promote important diabetes causes before local, state, and federal elected officials and policy makers. DPAC has been successful too… testifying before congress, taking part in important discussions on insulin pricing, and many other achievements.

They’ve delivered an extremely powerful app that helps individual citizens take action on issues quickly and easily. They’ve educated and informed before many, and for what it’s worth, I’ve been proud to represent them at Friends for Life events over the past two years.

Diabetes Advocacy Alliance is just what its name indicates: an Alliance of groups dedicated to advancing the causes important to people living with diabetes. In joining DAA, DPAC will be joining the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Medical Association, and others in an effort to collectively amplify all our voices.

The impression I get here is that DPAC is still going to be DPAC. But we’re all aware that there are a number of disparate voices out there, all advocating for diabetes while advocating for different things. Where we’re able to join forces, we appear stronger to the people we’re advocating to.

Joining this alliance should help DPAC partner with other organizations to raise awareness and push legislators to act on our behalf. And in my book, that’s always a plus.

You may ask… what about the corporate organizations that are also part of Diabetes Advocacy Alliance? Is that okay?

Well, first of all, they wanted to be part of the alliance, or they wouldn’t be there. They could have ignored this group, or even spent time and money to try to render it ineffective. Instead, they climbed on board as members.

Second, wow… an organization with members who may not always have the same priorities at the same time… sounds like Washington! If they can do it, DAA can do it too. And believe it or not, there could be times where my goal and a company’s goal may actually be the same. Maybe more often than you might think.

DPAC’s CEO, Christel Marchand Aprigliano, put it this way in the press release announcing the news:

“With the current U.S. healthcare system spending more than 1 in 5 healthcare dollars on diabetes, there has never been a more important time to advocate for the long-term health of our community.”

I could not agree more.

I’m always interested in how new collaborations will turn out. I know that the missions of Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition and Diabetes Advocacy Alliance are great for partnering for more people, more effectively, more often. Here’s hoping that my goals remain their goals, and those goals have a greater impact through this collaboration.