I think I'm the last person to write-up about this meeting so consider this a short recap.
Roche Diagnostics organized this meetup with help from Amy Tenderich and Manny Hernandez. Roche paid all of our expenses to and from the meeting and put us up in a comfortable hotel. I know that going into this summit I was nervous because I really didn't know what to expect. One concern we all shared was whether Roche was going to use the summit to do a big sales job to us. In the end, we all learned from the experience and Roche did an excellent job focusing on social media, and how to engage with it, while keeping marketing away.
We arrived at our hotel on Wednesday evening and had a dinner hosted by Roche at a local restaurant. Each table had 2-3 bloggers and a corresponding number of Roche staff. Despite this, and I know I wasn't alone, we had an opportunity to talk with Roche people about a number of topics including, in my case, the Disetronic insulin pump (aka Accu-chek Spirit) and when it might be available again in the US. At some stage I'd like to review it, hopefully I will have that opportunity.
After a late night talking with each other, we were up early (and not so bright) for a 7:30 trip to Roche offices. Manny Hernandez led us in an exercise where we tried to think about how to increase our outreach to people with diabetes. The 500,000 to 1 million (estimated) people that read our collective blogs already know we exist, but what about the millions of people who are struggling with diabetes without much support except from office visits 2 - 4 times a year.
Some ideas that I liked:
Provide information to doctors offices with a list of qualified online resources that can help people with diabetes. (Gina Capone's excellentDiabetes OC is a great reference site if you're trying to get information about diabetes.)
Form a loose association of blogs and try to focus on a single topic once every few months. We could issue a press release to media around this event and spread awareness of a specific diabetes issue. Eventually media might pay attention to this reliable source for diabetes information and news.
In the afternoon we focused on social media and how to best engage pharma in our world. Here we're all really interested in a relationship that will benefit all of us. We need better information and products; pharma would like to increase awareness of their offerings and get more market share. Getting this right is a delicate balance and I'm sure mistakes will be made. I think Roche wanted to try and learn from our experiences so they don't screw up too much. Of course the problem here is that there aren't really any rules about how to use social media effectively and sometimes we all screw up. But we learn quickly!
I think Roche showed a lot of courage in organizing this first-time event. We bloggers benefited because we had a chance to build stronger connections. I hope that some of the very direct feedback we gave Roche will help them as they try to improve their message for folks with diabetes. (Hint: don't use stock photos, show real people with diabetes in realistic situations: carb counting; testing while exercising; correcting a low; etc.)
Our smiling faces are below, if you click on it you'll get to a page with a link to each blogger. If you want more information about the summit, each of them has provided a slightly different take on it.
Just a quick post while I'm waiting to board a plane.
The event has been organized by Roche, makers of the Accu-Chek line of products. Among other things we'll be talking about is How can bloggers and community leaders best represent and help other patients?
The diabetes search engine now has about 900 sites and pages that it searches for information all about diabetes. So far the advertising revenue is about $55 and that's all going to Dr. Faustman's research at MGH.
Here's some of the sites that I just added recently.
The misadventures of peabody is a new blog from emily who was diagnosed with type one in March 2008. That's about seven weeks ago. Drop by and welcome her to the diabetes OC.
The ultimate hike for a cure! Ty Hover is either crazy or wildly ambitious. He's planning to hike from Detroit to Alaska and raise $290,000 towards diabetes research along the way.
The lucky druggie is a blog by Jessica who was diagnosed in January 2007. Today is her 19th birthday, drop by and say hi to her.
Diabetes365
There are now over 4,500 pictures in the Diabetes365 project with more being added every day. Several have been used by the media.
If you'd like to learn how diabetes affects us or makes us feel drop by and have a look. If you do decide to use a picture for any reason, do pleaseask the photographer and give attribution.
Don't be put off by it's length, the real information is within the first 40 pages. It's a readable and informative document. And the Significant Barriers to Adoption that are covered starting on page 35 are still here today. It's worth reading.
If you're a regular reader, you know that I created the Diabetes Search Engine that uses Google technology to let you search over 800 sites that are all related to diabetes.
I add new sites to the engine list many times a week. And I decided that I'll occasionally post a list of the ten sites that I've most recently added. If you haven't already tried the engine out, I think you'll find it very useful. All advertising raised goes to support Dr. Faustman's research for a Type 1 diabetes cure.
I hope you'll check out some of these sites. I had a hard time stopping at the first ten!
InsulIndependence.org is "a worldwide project aimed at changing diabetic lives through adventure travel, educational outreach, and web-based community support."
so much sweeter is a fairly new blog from Carly. She's a graphic designer from PA, and she's the proud wearer of an OmniPod.
The Biggs Picture is a blog from Angela. Like many oph us she struggles with diabetes and technology. She seems to like kitties.
D.A.D. Innovations is a startup company that makes and sells diabetic driver car window decals and other handy products. The company was founded by Lisa, who's dad has diabetes.
Trying To Be Human is a blog from Araby62. "Various and sundry thoughts on living with type 1 diabetes from a thirtysomething wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and lady-in-waiting to a certain feline."
Dodging Diabetes Charity Dodgeball Tournament. I think the name is obvious. This is the 3rd annual one and it happens in Bethesda, Maryland. They're looking for participants and sponsors.
The Diabetic Runner Challenge is a site that challenges you to run and raise awareness of diabetes and the upcoming 2nd World Diabetes Day in November.
Camp Possibilities is a camp for "children with diabetes between the ages of 7 and 15 who, due to the complexity of their disease, often do not get the chance to go to a summer camp". It's in Darlington, MD.
If I don't talk with you before then, have a great weekend!
I'm looking forward to a last bit of R&R before school starts for everyone.
On Monday I'm looking forward to lunch with Allison and Mel in Cambridge, MA. If any of you d-bloggers are local to Massachusetts drop me a line if you'd like to join the fun.
And next week I'll try and post some thoughts on the Cozmo insulin pump that I just returned today. Overall I liked it with a few reservations.
This is only partially diabetes-related, but I'm sure you'll forgive me.
My wife has just started to blog about how she's working on getting back to software engineering. She's the love of my life and I'll bet her blog will be of interest to some of you.
We've been together since the early 1990's, so she's also seen me transition from shots to an insulin pump and from blood glucose meters to a continuous glucose monitor. And she's stood by my during various diabetes advocacy issues and even my current crazy bike ride.
I think it's a well organized list and clearly thoughtfully put together. I'm always working at making my blog posts better and this may be a useful checklist for me. I hope you find it useful.
I've been reading your blogs without actually acknowledging it in my blog roll on the right.
So I finally exported all the links from Bloglines and updated my template. They're meant to be in alphabetical order, though I may have made some mistakes.
Whew. That's a lot of folks writing about diabetes and other things.
They're all good blogs. Drop by and read one of them today.
Update Thanks to Chrissie for reminding me that I hadn't added her blog to my list (sorry Chrissie). If I've left a comment on your diabetes-related blog and you don't see it in my blogroll, please leave me a comment and I'll fix it.
The Diabetes Technology Blog is focused on using technology to live life to the full with diabetes. I review new diabetes technology including: blood glucose monitors; continuous glucose monitors; blood sugar meters; diabetes software and living with diabetes.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 36 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN Plus CGM to track my blood glucose levels.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
