The role of the Internet and social media in removing the "invisible barriers" among patients and making their views known in diabetes care

For decades, diabetes was defined by its isolation, as scattered patients had little contact with each other and support groups were difficult to mobilize. But technology has now removed those invisible barriers. If you are reading diaTribe, you already understand the power of the Internet to form virtual communities, but we are just beginning to understand the potential of this technology and how “social media” might transform diabetes care.

That was one of the central themes of a recent Diabetes Social Media Summit sponsored by Roche, maker of Accu-Chek glucose strips and meters, and Spirit insulin pump, at Roche’s North American headquarters in Indianapolis. The meeting brought together many of the most influential bloggers and patient advocates in diabetes to discuss how industry can participate in the world of new media. Understandably, I was thrilled to be invited. And I was personally delighted to see a medical device company reaching out to online advocates to discuss appropriate ways of engaging the diabetes community at large.

My support of online social media may seem a bit surprising given that I’m a not-so-tech-savvy mother of three young kids, and although I’m (sadly) a little too glued to my BlackBerry due to my work and though I love Facebook for connecting me with far-flung family and friends and Twitter for hearing from Ruth Reichl and Guy Kawasaki, I don’t know Flickr from MySpace and I don’t belong to any online diabetes support groups. But, the more I have learned, the more I welcome social media because I think that patient empowerment and networking are an increasingly important element of diabetes management. You can’t hand a person with diabetes a state-of-the-art insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor, or even a carb-counting for dummies book and expect ideal results. There is more to diabetes than gadgets, drugs, and training manuals. Every person with diabetes specializes in treating his or her own body, but that treatment benefits by interacting with others who face the same challenges and experiences the same heartbreaks and triumphs.

Just as important, online diabetes communities allow people to work together as advocates. We as a community are going to have to make clear to our drug and device makers what we want in the next generation products, and we must also make sure that our voices are heard at the FDA and other regulatory agencies.

At diaTribe we always strive to keep you in informed on the latest gadgets and drugs in diabetes, and in this issue, we come up to speed on diabetes social media with the help of Amy, Manny, and Kerri. We also had help from all of you – thank you! In this issue, instead of writing about a new device in Test Drive, we’ve asked readers their opinions of different forms of online tools. The responses have been fascinating. We’ve also recently introduced a Twitter account (twitter.com/DiaTribeNews) as well as a Facebook page (username: diaTribe®). We’re still trying to learn how these can be helpful, and we’re open to your ideas as we test them out.

Also, we want to thank all 2,600 of you who joined the dQ&A Panel in June and took our initial survey! These surveys tell the diabetes industry about your opinions and help keep diaTribe free. We offer a “thank-you” payment of $5 per survey, to keep or donate to a diabetes charity, plus chances to take extra surveys for Amazon.com gift cards and to win great prizes. In fact, we’d like to congratulate the winners of the June prize drawing: Georgia Wilder, who won our First Prize of a year’s supply of test strips; and Laura Cackowski, George Simmons, Jeri St. Sauver, Sarah Mencarini, Matthew Pearlman, Diane Kelly, Erin Conboy Heiser, David Ross, Thom Hoffenkamp, Sharee, Mary Jane Crouch, and Mary Johnson, who won Second Prizes of 100 test strips each.

dQ&A Panel Members take four or more surveys per year about the diabetes products and services they use. It’s not too late to join! Please email us at dqamember@d-qa.com if you are interested.

Yours truly,

Kelly L. Close