As a person with Type 1 diabetes, whose life is all wrapped up in helping others with this incurable illness, it’s hard to express the relief and yes — joy — that I feel knowing that researchers hands will finally be untied by Obama today to freely explore the enormous possibilities of stem cell research!
Fortunately for me, another journalist living with Type 1 named Mike Littwin at the Denver Post has just done an…
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This week’s Diabetes Forum 2009 conference was two full days of presentations on policy and reform — a dizzying array of statistics and political jargon and acronyms like “four-tier formularies,” “SNPs” and “VBID” and “double-digit Medicare margin.” Surely all very important stuff in the netherworlds of managed care and reimbursement administration. But what the heck?! I gladly reminded this crowd that these terms mean little if nothing to the average patient.
So what DOES concern…
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I’m sorry to report that the first day of the two-day Diabetes Forum 2009 conference here in snowy Washington, DC, was not very encouraging. Don’t get me wrong, the event was extremely well-organized, well-attended, and fascinating. It’s just that what we were hearing was a lot of bad news about the state of diabetes care in this country and the gargantuan task ahead of policymakers in reforming our healthcare system. Not much new there.
However,…
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In our emerging world of web-based health offerings and Net-informed patients, it looks like the name-game is still heating up. Recently I sounded off about whether we should be referred to now as patients or consumers, and don’t forget the term “ePatients” — along with eHeath Consumers, Cybercitizens, etc., etc.
Now Manhattan Research, a highly respected pharmaceutical and healthcare market research firm, has invented a new buzz-term for consumers who use the Internet to research…
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Guess where I am today? That’s right. If the headline didn’t tip you off: I’m in Washington DC, elated to be rubbing elbows with some of our nation’s most prominent diabetes advocacy groups, at the high-level Diabetes Forum 2009 Conference, this year titled “Broaden Your View.”
I say “high-level” because this truly is the most influential diabetes event I’ve ever been invited to participate in. It’s put together by a group called Avalere Health that…
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