A Letter of Concern to the New York Times
Dr. Lawrence Soler of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) wrote a letter to the New York Times on November 27 regarding what we would agree was a substantial oversight in a November 20 piece entitled "Twins on a Medical Odyssey After a Diagnosis of Diabetes". The touching story describes how Ali Newman's diagnosis of type 1 diabetes may have been enough of a forewarning to prevent a similar diagnosis in her twin sibling, Marissa.
Marissa is the first enrollee for an oral insulin study run by the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet - a network of diabetes research centers funded by multiple organizations including the NIH/NIDDK, JDRF and the American Diabetes Association.
What Dr. Soler points out in his abridged letter is that, despite the promising work being done on diabetes, "the program that is paying for this research may well be closed down unless Congress takes action by year's end [2007]." In a conversation with diaTribe, he mentioned that 35 percent of federal type 1 funding will be lost if the NIH's Type 1 Special Diabetes Statutory Funding Program is not renewed. This could potentially affect 60,000 clinical research participants.
He called on diaTribe to help get the message out about the JDRF's Promise to Remember Me Campaign, where ordinary families affected by diabetes contact their Congressional representatives. This is the JDRF's top legislative priority and you can help this effort by visiting http://promise.jdrf.org/. Check out diaTribe Editor Kelly Close's blog on this campaign. Let's go out and get some promises! What else can you do? Think about reimbursement, another big priority, and sign our petition that we're going to send to governments around the globe to show them we really care!
