Following on my review of the year in diabetes, I’ve been reflecting on what marked 2008 here at DiabetesMine.com. I realized that 2008 was quite an eventful year over here, both for me personally and news-wise. Here’s a list of some key milestones here at the Mine:
January – I was featured in Newsweek! And we learned that diabetes costs America more than the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism combined.
February - I got to be in the Funny Papers (sort of). The news broke on an ugly scandal at JDRF.
March - we had some fun with “The Seven Words of Wisdom for Diabetes” contest. I learned a lot about life with diabetes complications.
April - the 2nd Annual Diabetes Design Challenge kicked off! I wrote all about LADA (on Raise Your Voice day).
May - the blog was redesigned. My chatter about preparing a Diabetes Emergency Kit launched lots of discussion.
June - The Design Challenge winners were announced! Meanwhile, prototype nanopumps were getting ready for prime-time.
The inside story on the Mr. Universe hypoglycemia case was revealed. We launched Diabetes Reloaded, the video.
July – I launched my summer reading series — guest posts by the likes of Jim Turner and Susannah Fox.
And I got my crack at a trial of the FreeStyle Navigator, which by no fault of its own ends badly. We looked into why you can’t tell if your insulin is still good? Because that sort of thing doesn’t sell.
August – I returned from my European sojourn a little overweight and tested the South Beach diet.
More great guest posts by Hope Warshaw on carb counting, by Birdie on Why We Blog, by Dr. Alan Rubin on corruption in diabetes pharma, and by Dr. Richard Jackson, who explains the real lessons from the ACCORD study.
Sept - I got my day in the sun on TCOYD TV!
October - the OC tried with all its might to get Google to Doodle diabetes.
I moderated that Diabetes Research Institute panel on Hope or Hype?
I talked with the folks from Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health to understand this whole “personal health records” movement and what it means to PWDs.
November – National Diabetes Awareness Month and World Diabetes Day Nov. 14! Why doesn’t the ADA recognize the latter? And embrace the blue circle?
December – we had a bunch more fun here with the Holiday Survival Sweepstakes.
We find the FDA in a mess and doing some things that are counter to the best interests of diabetes patients (more on that soon).
Certainly, there are many challenges ahead. I look forward to writing about them. I, for one, am looking forward to a big 2009 here at the Mine.
2008 was a big year indeed (as is every year). Diabetech is happy to report back on the fact that thanks to all of the data amassed since our first clinical trial in 2002, we have successfully negotiated our first health plan contract with a specific code that covers an expanded definition of what is required to encourage self-management.
This is big news not only for my company but for all people with diabetes because this represents the first drop of water through the dam for coverage of advanced technologies used to encourage patients to change behaviors and thus improved outcomes. This includes CGM, GlucoMON and anything else that might be a helpful tool in the equation. 2009 promises to be a watershed year in which we see several more health plans providing financial support for programs that can demonstrate improved outcomes. The tools incorporated are secondary to the fact that patients enrolled in our healthcordia programs have better control than patients using the old version of diabetes care. The key to this of course is the ability to capture reliable and accurate data that shows how the advanced patient toolset is responsible for enabling these improved outcomes. To my knowledge, ADMS is the first technology platform of its kind to achieve this milestone. Hopefully 2009 will see expansion not only for coverage of ADMS technology and healthcordia programs but for other similar programs as well.