Diabetes By The Numbers is back, this time with the CEO of Diabetes Sisters, Anna Norton. Her passion and enthusiasm for leading this groundbreaking organization for women living with diabetes practically knocked me over from 700 miles away.
Today, Anna and I talk about the mission of Diabetes Sisters, the various programs that the organization provides to educate, support, and empower women, and what’s on the agenda for 2016. If you don’t know much (or anything) about Diabetes Sisters, or if you’re just looking to reconnect, this podcast is for you.
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The Diabetes Sisters website contains blogs and online forums available night and day, plus educational material and updates on upcoming events: diabetessisters.org
Molly McElwee Malloy was my first interview here. She’s also my latest interview here.
A little over two months after the birth of Happy Medium, I saw Molly give a speech at a local JDRF meeting in Baltimore. At the time, she was clinical research coordinator at the Center for Diabetes Technology at the University of Virginia. She is also an RN and a Certified Diabetes Educator, and has been living with Type 1 Diabetes since 1998.
That was the first time I had seen anyone speak live about artificial pancreas development, how everything worked, and actually show me photos of the device they were testing. I was jazzed up about it, and the next day (and the day after that), I really bothered Molly for an interview. She said no, but said she would answer any questions I might have, so I could get all my facts straight.
In that instance as a new diabetes blogger with two months experience, and in the three years since, she has been kind, patient, and gracious when bombarded by my enthusiasm and my never-ending list of questions.
This month, Molly stepped into her latest role as Head of Patient Engagement at Type Zero Technologies, which is the commercial arm of AP research that was born many years ago at UVA’s Center for Diabetes Technology.
I am proud to say that she has finally gone on the record with me, for about 13 minutes, to talk about Type Zero and their InControl platform, including InControl Advice and InControl Cloud. She talks about those three products, the timing of upcoming clinical trials, and the plan for submitting these for approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In reality, I wish we had more time, because this discussion could have easily gone two or three episodes. Instead, you’ll have to be satisfied with this little teaser, and then go to the Type Zero website to learn more.
Also, and this is important: Clinical trial participants are a very important piece of cutting-edge development like this. Please see below to find out more about volunteering to participate.
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Find out more by going to the Type Zero Technologies website: http://typezero.com
Follow Molly McElwee Malloy on Twitter: @MollyMacT1D
It seems nearly everyone knows Nicole Johnson. They remember her as Miss America 1999, they’ve seen her at conferences, on social media. All that, plus the fact that she always seems to have a smile on her face, makes people forget that she is actually Doctor Nicole Johnson, who is the first person to earn a Doctor of Public Health degree at the University of South Florida. Moreover, she is actually doing something important and meaningful with that distinction. That’s why you’ll hear me refer to her as Dr. Johnson, rather than Nicole, throughout our talk. She’s earned that right.
In this episode of Diabetes By The Numbers, Dr. Johnson lets us in on the groundbreaking Postdoctoral Diabetes Fellowship Program that she’s running out of the University of South Florida.
Part patient-facing, part research, five women from around the country will be taking part over the next year in a program that will develop and enhance their understanding of the psychosocial aspects of living with diabetes 24/7/365. Definitely a subject worth further scrutiny. The fellows will be mentored by doctors at the head of the class in this subject, including Dr. Johnson herself, Dr. Lori Laffel at Joslin Diabetes Center, Dr. Korey Hood at Stanford, and Dr. Jill Weissberg-Benchel at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
I would tell you more, but I prefer to defer to Dr. Johnson for the rest.
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“Like anyone else, I want to bee seen, first and foremost, as a human being… as a person.”
So… I touched on the subject of how we react to issues that People With Diabetes face in advertising and media in my last post.
Bea Sparks lives with Type 2 Diabetes. I live with Type 1 Diabetes.
In the next episode of Diabetes By The Numbers (now available on iTunes!), Bea brings her unique and important voice to the conversation. It’s so good and so meaningful, in fact, that I broke my original ten minute rule and just included the entire sixteen minute talk.
Together, we riff on the subject of how we, all of us living with diabetes, can work to include rather than exclude when we respond to stigma and shame that others try to lay on us. Trust me, you will feel the power of Bea’s convictions coming right through your listening device.
The quote from Bea at the top of this post is just one of the many golden nuggets included. Feel free to add your nuggets below.
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Owing to my (very long ago) past in radio and advertising, and the fact that I always thought it might be fun, I’ve wanted to do a podcast for some time.
In the last year and a half, I started to feel like that wasn’t going to happen. Because, let’s face it, there are many diabetes podcasts out there, and they are all good. Why create another program where I sit with someone for 45 minutes or an hour, talk about diabetes, and say “Thank you for listening”? If I was going to dive in, I needed to offer something different.
With the help of another patient advocate at the HeatheVoices conference in April, I was able to start thinking about it again (thanks Josh!). His idea: Make the podcast much shorter.
That’s what I’ve done. Each podcast should be ten minutes or so, focusing on diabetes news of the day. I’m not going to hold myself to that; if the content is important and it goes eleven or twelve minutes, so be it. Today’s podcast is right around ten minutes.
I worked hard to get a perfect sound from the room in my home that I’m recording from. To put it bluntly, that’s not going to happen, though you will be able to hear me and understand me. In addition, I’ve long realized that my voice is not exactly perfect, and after not speaking into a microphone for close to 20 years, I’m a little rusty. But I also realized long ago that the real success in endeavors like this lies in the personalities being interviewed.
A great example is today’s interview with Katy Killilea. She’s a superb writer and an engaging talker, with super advice about 504 plans for kids going to school with diabetes this fall. If you don’t know a 504 plan from Formula 409, listen to the podcast and click on the very helpful links below.
It’s called Diabetes By The Numbers (listen to the end… you’ll get it). Today is episode one. Just like this blog, I suspect that the podcast will grow and evolve over time, and a year from now, it may not sound anything like it does today. That’s the way things usually work when they work best for me.
Have a listen. Do you have any good ideas for a future podcast? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to let me know.
And for the first time, let me say: Thanks for listening.
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I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.
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