Diabetes By The Numbers

One of the surprising things I've found out about myself while interviewing people for Diabetes By The Numbers is that I'm one of the worst pronouncers of names I've ever met. That's horrible, especially when I have a guest as special as Renza Scibilia. Renza is a diabetes superhero worldwide, with her blog, her work for a large diabetes organization in Australia, and her presence at the forefront of the most important issues facing all of us. After Renza gets me straightened out on the correct pronunciation of her last name, we talk about the upcoming ATTD conference in Berlin, the importance of #LanguageMatters, and how critical the Spare a Rose campaign is. Which is timely, because this episode of Diabetes By The Numbers is part of Diabetes Podcast Week, February 10 through 16. All of the podcasters and video bloggers are throwing their efforts this week behind the Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign through the International Diabetes Federation's Life for a Child program. As I've mentioned before, the cos

Mike Lawson is easy to talk to. He's been on the podcast before, in one of his many roles with Diabetes Hands Foundation. Today, Mike still has a number of roles... in addition to a full time job, he's a board member at T1 International. And he's written a book! Open Up Your Bag is a delightful children's book that helps familiarize young ones to the everyday tasks that come with living with diabetes. As Mike mentions, it also helps facilitate discussion about life with diabetes between kids and their parents. If you're a fan of Mike's artwork at DHF and elsewhere, you'll notice it in the new book because he's the illustrator too!  In our conversation, we talk about the book, about Mike's creativity, and his lifelong love of children's literature. It's a terrific chat, and a terrific book. Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic Mike Lawson's new book, Open Up Your Bag, is available via Amazon: Get your copy of Open Up Your Bag You can find coloring and activity sheets for Open U

Diabetes By The Numbers is BACK! Thanks to everyone who waited patiently while I worked to retool the podcast. It took a while, but I am happy to be sharing another interesting conversation with you. Today I'm speaking with Grainne Flynn, who is a passionate writer and diabetes advocate living in the Republic of Ireland. I've been reading her blog, Blood Sugar Trampoline, for some time, and I got to meet her in person last October at the joint Diabetes Sisters/Diabetes UnConference get-together in Alexandria, Virginia. Did you ever strike up a conversation with someone and instantly feel comfortable? That's how you'll feel hearing Grainne. We talk about Blood Sugar Trampoline, the amazing Thriveabetes conference just completed... and she even shares her three must-visit places on the Emerald Isle. I hope you enjoy our conversation. And thank you so much for listening. Again. Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic Grainne Flynn writes about her life with diabetes at her personal

Clinical trials come and go, and often they may seem like the same thing is just being tested over and over again. But it’s really not like that at all. Case in point is the clinical trial beginning at the University of Virginia Center for Diabetes Technology. Jess Robic and Jennifer Pinnata from the CDT are here to talk about this trial specifically, and to answer a few questions surrounding clinical trial participation in general. This trial is specifically recruiting MDI (multiple daily injections) users, but it’s using algorithms developed for use in artificial pancreas systems. There are many super interesting aspects to this study. The best part is all the diabetes stuff you get as part of participation in the trial. It includes: - Insulin for the length of the trial - Use of an innovative insulin “smart” pen - Use of a Dexcom G5 continuous glucose monitor - Test strips for the length of the trial - A stipend, dependent on the number of in-person study visits you complete before the end of your particip

Mindy Bartleson is accomplished.  I don't think that's overstating it.  What's really amazing is how accomplished she is at only 24 years of age. Mindy lives with a number of chronic conditions, diabetes being one of them, and we talk about them here.  Many people remember her from her previous work at College Diabetes Network.  She has a really super blog.  Her writing has been featured on numerous websites. And now, she's written a book.   We talk about the book, about what it's like to live with so many things and go to college and write a blog and write a book too.   This interview is being aired in conjunction with the Kickstarter campaign designed to help Mindy get her book published.  CLICK HERE to contribute... the end result will be well worth it.   Here's a pretty revealing look at one of nicest people you'll ever get to know.   Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic   Help Mindy publish her book!  To donate to Mindy's Kickstarter campaign, CLICK HERE.   Mindy's blog i

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 refer

How do you do two interviews on the same subject on different days within the same week?  It helps if something big happens on one of the days in between interviews. "Everything in my life, every decision I've made throughout my life, has always been framed around, 'Will I be able to get health insurance?'." In part two of my discussions with leaders of the March for Health, the wonderful organizer of the Nashville march, Cara Richardson explains perfectly why, even though the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives pulled his "repeal and replace" healthcare legislation from consideration last Friday, there is still a need for a March.  She explains exactly why access to care and spreading knowledge of patient's rights are such an important part of her life.    Trust me... this will be well worth your time. Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic Cara Richardson is organizer for the March for Health in Public Square Park, Nashville Tennessee, Saturday, April 1st at 11:00 a

Wow.  What a turn of events.  Last Thursday, when Leyla Mansour-Cole and I recorded this interview, we were less than 24 hours away from the unexpected move of the Speaker of the House of Representatives pulling the Republican's "repeal and replace" health care legislation from consideration.   Still, there is a lot left to debate when it comes to health care in America.  And that's why people all over the country will be participating in the March for Health Saturday, April 1.  So many of us are affected by the way care, drugs, and medical technology are delivered in this country.  That's a lot of what we'll be talking about in this episode.  And don't forget to listen to Wednesday's companion interview on March for Health with Cara Richardson.  Together, these two are the model of what happens when you see an important issue and throw yourself head first into the discussion, making a huge, positive impact.   Reference Material - Click below for more information Leyla Mansour-Cole is National and Washingto

Hello, and welcome to my little part of Diabetes Podcast Week.  This week, eleven diabetes podcasters and video bloggers are taking part in a week-long diabetes information-fest, and centering once again on the Spare A Rose, Save A Child campaign.  So listen to this episode, then use the giving link to make your donation and save the life of a child living in a developing country who is also living with diabetes.  More information on Spare A Rose, Save A Child is at the beginning of this episode, and there's an additional link below.   My guest for this episode is one of my best friends in the world, Karen Graffeo.  But that's not why you should listen to our conversation.  You should listen because Karen, in addition to leading Diabetes Sisters' Virtual PODS (Part Of Diabetes Sisters) group, is helping to lead Diabetes Sisters Voices, a collaboration between Diabetes Sisters, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina, TrustNetMD, and the Diabetes Sisters stakeholder advisory board of wo

Time now for the third and final part of my conversation with Christel Marchand Aprigliano.  If you haven't yet listened to the first two parts of our chat, please go back after this episode and listen to them, because they are well worth your time. In this episode, we talk about Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition,or DPAC.  Christel and Bennet Dunlap started DPAC as a way to help amplify the voice of the patient to elected officials and policy makers.  They provide a slew of tools that empower friends, family, and fellow advocates to take action on a number of diabetes-centric issues.  Often, in less than one minute. Note: I volunteered with DPAC in 2016, and plan to do so again in 2017.  Also, I should mention that this interview was recorded after the November 2016 election, but prior to the beginning of the 115th U.S. Congress in 2017.   Thanks so much to Christel for sitting down for this conversation.  Enjoy, and get your advocacy on! Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topi

Welcome back to Diabetes By The Numbers. Today, I feature the second part of my conversation with Christel Marchand Aprigliano.  In this episode, we talk about one of the hot button issues of the day-- insulin pricing. We cover a recent meeting between insulin makers and diabetes advocates, and developments on pricing announced by two of those insulin makers since that meeting took place in November of 2016. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reference Material - Click below for more information Christel Marchand Aprigliano writes about diabetes at:ThePerfectD.com You can connect with Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, or DPAC, at: DiabetesPAC.org © Stephen Shaul

I can't tell you how excited I am to finally share a conversation with Christel Marchand Aprigliano.  In three parts.   Christel, as I mention in the introduction, is a force in the diabetes world.  Until there isn't a diabetes world any longer, we can only hope to have advocates like her who get in the trenches and fight for the things that are important to those of us living with this disease.   In part two of our conversation, you'll hear about one of the hot topics of the day, insulin pricing, where roles are slightly reversed, and I'm the feisty one.  Part three will cover Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, and how using the easy button can help you get your diabetes advocacy started, and up your diabetes advocacy, all in less than two minutes.  Those episodes are still to come, and you're not going to want to miss them.   Today, we talk about the unique gathering known as the Diabetes UnConference.  Christel covers all the things that make the UnConference life-affirming.  We discuss the No Social Med

Diabetes By The Numbers is back, with the first in what I hope will be a series of episodes in which I'll investigate healthcare in countries other than my own.   Helping me get started is Mariana Gomez.  Mariana is a super diabetes advocate, through the diabetes community in Mexico City where she lives, as a writer at her personal blog, dulcesitosparami.com, and as Community and Social Media Assistant for the Hispanic Market at Diabetes Hands Foundation.   In addition to that, she's a licensed practicing psychologist.  And oh, by the way, she's been living with Type 1 diabetes for over 30 years.    Mariana is uniquely qualified to discuss diabetes at any time, and certainly qualified to discuss the state of healthcare for those living with diabetes in Mexico.   As I said, this is the first in what I hope will be a series of interviews on healthcare from a number of countries.  If you're living in a country outside of the USA and you'd like to talk about healthcare where you live, please send me an e-mail at

About three weeks ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the MiniMed 670g, Medtronic's hybrid closed loop system, for people with diabetes over the age of 14. This news has generated a lot of excitement, and also a lot of questions.  I was fortunate enough to connect a little over a week ago with Karrie Hawbaker and Michael Hill of Medtronic Diabetes (which is why then I was saying the approval was two weeks ago), who went on the record about how the 670g works, the new CGM sensor associated with the 670g, and the upgrade pathway for existing Medtronic customers.  Which is still a little murky, but they recognize that every customer is different, and they're willing to talk to you about it.  There's also a little at the end about how Medtronic is leveraging IBM's Watson supercomputer to crunch data. Here then, is everything you want to know about the 670g.  Thanks Karrie and Mike! Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic: Karrie Hawbaker is Senior Manager of Social Me

Original air date: October 14, 2016 Today begins one of my favorite times of the year.  Every year, Diabetes Hands Foundation sponsors the Big Blue Test.  Now until November 14 (World Diabetes Day), you and your loved ones, plus anyone else you know, are encouraged to get moving.  And log the results.  And help diabetes groups doing amazing work to build community and help others. Here’s how it works: first, check your blood glucose.  Not living with diabetes?  Skip this step.  Then get out and get moving for 14 to 20 minutes or more.  You can walk, run, swim, bike, play badminton, ride a Big Wheel, whatever.  Then do another BG check (or skip it if you don’t live with diabetes) and log the results at BigBlueTest.org.  Or make it easy on yourself and download the Big Blue Test app on your iPhone or Android device, and do the same. For the next month, every Big Blue Test logged will result in a $3.00(US) donation, split evenly among three wonderful diabetes non-profits:   Diabetes Sisters   We Are Diabetes   R

Welcome to year 2 of Diabetes By The Numbers! Asha Brown is a unique individual.  Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of five.  She later developed diabulimia, a dangerous condition.  Fortunately, she was able to overcome diabulimia, and she has been in recovery for seven years now.    The really cool thing about Asha is that she co-founded We Are Diabetes, which works with families patients, and health professionals across the USA to help and support those living with diabetes and eating disorders.   Today, we talk about diabulimia, how We Are Diabetes serves and supports, and the challenges faced by patients post-treatment.  This was a conversation I've wanted to have for a long time, and I came away with a lot of knowledge that I didn't have when we began.   Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topic   Asha Brown is Founder and Executive Director of We Are Diabetes, which provides information, hope, and support to people living with diabetes and eating disorders: wearediabete

Daniele Hargenrader is one of the hardest working people I know of in the diabetes community.  Both on a personal and a professional level.She's a nutritionist, a health coach, a certified professional trainer.  She's an international speaker, and an author too.Today, Daniele talks about the things that motivated her to lose weight, get fit, and rock her diabetes.  She talks about why nutrition is focus number 1.  She talks about her book, Unleash Your Inner Diabetes Dominator: How to Use Your Powers of Choice, Self-Love, and Community to Completely Change Your Relationship With Diabetes for the Better.  And she talks about her latest project.Seriously, I don't know how she does it all, but she does it well.Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topicDaniele Hargenrader writes blog posts, hosts video chats, teaches online courses, and more through her website:diabetesdominator.comDaniele mentions using MyFitnessPal to log her food choices:myfitnesspal.comWant to pick up Daniele's fantas

After a brief hiatus, the Diabetes By The Numbers podcast is back.Today's podcast features Dr. Medha Munshi, Director of Joslin Diabetes Center's Geriatric Diabetes Program.  She's co-authored a recent (and first ever) American Diabetes Association position statement designed to help homes and other skilled nursing facilities care better and more appropriately for senior patients with diabetes.Dr. Munshi shares key points on the position statement, and great insights on caring for older people with diabetes.Reference Material - Click below for more information on this topicDr. Medha Munshi is Director of the Joslin Geriatric Diabetes Program and an an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.  She's also a staff geriatrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.CLICK HERE to find out more about Joslin's Geriatric Diabetes Program.To read the American Diabetes Association position statement co-authored by Dr. Munshi, CLICK HERE

You read that right... it's Diabetes Podcast Week!Brainchild of Stacey Simms at the Diabetes Connections podcast, this is a week where a dozen diabetes podcasters will be uploading new episodes and helping to raise money for the Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign.  Listen to the beginning and the end of this episode of Diabetes By The Numbers for more information on the Spare a Rose, Save a Child initiative and what an amazing difference it makes for children living in developing countries throughout the world.  Insulin should not be a luxury.This episode of Diabetes By The Numbers features the Superwoman known to her friends and compatriots as Merle Gleeson.  In our opening round question, she describes herself as vivacious, committed, and reliable.  She's that and a lot more.Merle has been living with Type 1 Diabetes for over 50 years.  Around nineteen years ago, her and a few friends started something called the Type 1 Diabetes Lounge, which holds regular meetings, fundraisers, educational sessions, parti

Welcome to Episode Ten of Diabetes By the Numbers.Today we have our first returning guest.  It's Molly McElwee Malloy, Head of Patient Engagement at TypeZero Technologies in Charlottesville, Virginia.  TypeZero is in the news this week for two big undertakings.First, there's a 12.7 million dollar artificial pancreas study funded by the National Institutes of Health.  It will begin very soon.  In this study, they'll be testing TypeZero's inControl platform, using a spiffy new device. This study will include as many as 240 participants!  The studies will take place in nine locations... six in the USA, and three in Europe.  To find out more about participating in this important research, scroll to the bottom of this post.The second big piece of news is this: Type Zero is entering into a partnership with CellNovo, which makes an integrated diabetes management system in Europe.  They've gotten a lot of good press here in the USA, and we talk about that and what this partnership means for TypeZero.  Have a listen.