September is nearly upon us (ugh…), and I for one am already eyeball-deep in work mode again. As I pack up my swimsuits, and prepare to start wearing my OmniPod on my now-hidden upper arms again (pending any late summer heat waves), I reflect on what went on in the diabetes world this summer, much of it while I was out and about:
The groundbreaking Roche Diabetes Social Media Summit, which was a wonderful 
experience for those in attendance, but also created quite a stir. It brought up a whole new conversation among bloggers about our relationship with each other and with the Pharma industry: how will we cope with potential conflicts of interest as we begin, inevitably, to engage with them more closely?
The 2009 Guest Post Series – don’t miss ‘em!
In case you didn’t catch them all, a directory of this summer’s wonderful contributions here at the ‘Mine -
The Search for Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring that Works by John Smith
What a New Era of Pharma Marketing Means to (Diabetes) Patients by John Mack
How to Get Pregnant with Type 1 Diabetes by Cheryl Alkon
Exercise Part 1: Working Out with Diabetes – Consider the Controllables: Understand the Uncontrollables by Matt Corcoran, MD, CDE
Exercise Part 2: Aerobic Training? Cardio? Anaerboic? Resistance? What Should You Do? by Sheri Colberg, PhD, CDE
Exercise Part 3: Triathlon Season Arrived; Diabetes Never Left by David Weingard, Fit4D
How Hollywood Kills Diabetes Education by Jennifer Dyer
Diabetes Then and Now and Leaping into the Future (Or “Why I Joined Medtronic”) by Francine Kaufman, MD
Beating the Heat with My Diabetic Gear by Sean Kelley, Health.com
When Diabetes Happens… to a Prima Ballerina! by Zippora Karz
‘One Lucky Teen with Diabetes‘ by Christian Stokes
Low Blood Sugar: One of My Biggest Fears as a Parent by John Crowley
The “Bang for Your Buck” Principle in Diabetes Management, by William Polonsky, MD
Thinking Hard About the Siblings of Diabetic Children, by Karen Talmadge
New Tips for Tweaking Dosing Formulas for Your Insulin Pump by Kelly Close, Close Concerns
The AADE (American Association of Diabetes Educators) Conference in Atlanta
I didn’t attend this year myself, but understand from expert attendees that the two biggest announcements remain those covered in my preview here: the new Solo tubeless insulin pump system from Medingo, and the new WaveSense iPhone app from AgaMatrix. Health Engage also announced introduction of a(nother) new free, web-based service for logging your glucose results and analyzing trends. You can also share your data with family, friends, or health care providers.
On the whole, however, I understand things were… well, quiet. A major drop in attendance and a “lack of excitement” were not just due to the poor state of the economy, according to D-industry consultant David Kliff.
“The fact is the diabetes market, both devices and drugs, has matured to a point where the progress being made is incremental rather than ground-breaking. Back in the day, products such as glucose monitors that offered alternate site testing or wireless insulin pumps generated a buzz that was felt throughout the exhibit hall. The same is true in the drug area where at one time new drugs such as Byetta or Januvia generated some real excitement,” he writes.
So we didn’t miss much. And the “Solo Micropump” folks had the chance to steal the show. Good for them.
Personally, I’m now buckling up for a very eventful Fall.
Amy,
Love your blog, but maybe you can help me understand what this whole controversy on Roche is all about in the first place. I’m rather new to the D-Blog world and keep seeing different posts against Roche, and others for Roche. I’m not sure what the whole Roche thing is about to begin with. A lot of the links confused me even more on what it was about. It just seems like this particular controversy has gone on for a loooong time.
Whether you guys were paid or not to attend this convention doesn’t matter. Many readers don’t understand how much time, energy and effort it takes to blog. It’s a full time job just to get your name out there. And there isn’t much money behind it. I don’t think people understand that. My website costs me more than it brings in. It’s just been in the last month that it’s begun to payoff. What I have trouble understanding is the fact that all of us D-bloggers or D-websiters all have advertising or affiliations of some sort on our blogs. I post regularly on interesting websites I come across or cool products or a good read I find that I think might benefit parents who have diabetes. Most of the time I don’t get paid or compensated for my opinion. Other times I may to help offset the costs associated with running the site and the time that it takes me to write and continue doing what I’m doing. But I only write what I believe in and can stand behind. It’s up to the reader to look into and decide if something is right for them.
So why the continual long drawn out controversy on Roche? Why has this whole Roche thing been singled out?
Thanks,
Traci Wennerholm
DiabeticParents.org
Hi Traci,
Great questions to ask!
The Answer:
Essentially Roche decided to host a Social Media Summit this summer, and selected a group of about 25 bloggers/online advocates to attend. The goal was to discuss our new interactive relationship with Pharma, and what they should / shouldn’t do in Social Media to work more closely with us.
Following the event, there was a lot of blog-based discussion about potential conflicts of interest, seeing that Roche paid our way and naturally had some interest in self-promotion in the whole affair. Also, some folks who were not invited were very unhappy about being excluded, and posted some very negative views, including some accusations of “selling out.”
Frankly, I think the Summit was a historic move on Roche’s part, because we WILL be engaging more closely with Pharma in the future — whether we seek it out or not, so we SHOULD be discussing the do’s and don’ts with them directly. See Kelly Close’s post from yesterday on the subject:
http://closeconcerns.typepad.com/close_concerns_weblog/2009/08/taking-our-online-relationships-offline.html
Going forward, I think we will see many more Pharma companies reaching out to our community in this way, so it’s definitely a timely and important discussion to have.
btw, Roche sent out their own recap of the Summit late Friday. David Edelman over at DiabetesDaily has posted it for all to review:
http://www.diabetesdaily.com/edelman/2009/08/roches-recap-of-social-media-summit.php
[...] For bringing together a group of e-patients and bloggers to listen and learn about diabetes at theRoche Diabetes Social Media Seminar this summer ….Also read about DiabetesMine’s visit to the Roche New Concept Incubator. Looks [...]
[...] For bringing together a group of e-patients and bloggers to listen and learn about diabetes at the Roche Diabetes Social Media Seminar this summer ….Also read about DiabetesMine’s visit to the Roche New Concept [...]