Back in the community

On Tuesday night, I finished my World Diabetes Day at an event at the Western Hospital. It was an event for people with type 1 diabetes, and the topic was diabetes technology, including DIY systems.

There were probably about eighty people in the auditorium. I recognised some – a lot of – familiar faces as the usual suspects (or frequent flyers) who attended Type 1 in the City events from when the series was run up until a couple of years ago.

I’m not going to write too much about the actual content of the event, but I do want to commend the Western Hospital for providing a safe and friendly place to discuss new technologies. When there is a diabetes educator like Cheryl Steele involved in organising a diabetes information session – someone who has always been at the absolute forefront of diabetes technology, and is now a ‘Looper’ herself – you can bet that the program would absolutely include THE LATEST technology, not just approved technologies.

It makes sense for her to feel this way. As more and more people start to investigate Open APS and Loop, and decide to try it for themselves, healthcare professionals in all settings will come across people using it. Denying it exists is ridiculous – does anyone truly believe that if HCPs don’t talk about it to their patients, no one will know about it?

Instead of turning their backs on DIY technologies, the Western Hospital opened their doors to people talking about it, and having HCPs in the room to be part of the discussion. It’s important to remember, the Western Hospital and their staff are not endorsing it, (just as my employer is not endorsing it when I speak about my personal experiences, or the ‘DIY movement’). But they are acknowledging it’s there and that #WeAreNotWaiting for regulatory processes to bring commercial products onto the market.

One of the speakers at the event was Dr Barbora Paldus who is involved in the current Medtronic hybrid-closed loop studies in Australia. Her talk was terrific and she gave great clarity about not only the trial she is involved in, but also closed loop trials around the world. She was clearly interested to hear about DIY APS, expressing her nervousness, but still open to discussion. She had a lot of questions, mostly about how to bring HCPs along in our decision to build our own loops. She wanted to know how we would encourage open dialogue with our HCPs so they better understood.

The discussion was lively. I felt that for most people in the room, they truly had just discovered a whole new part of diabetes treatments and technologies. Some people said that it wasn’t for them – and that’s fine. But they know something else open to them – something they may not have otherwise come to know about.

I got home at about 10pm and walked in the door. ‘How was it?’ asked Aaron. ‘It was brilliant.’ I said, realising that I was actually really quite emotional. ‘I miss these sorts of events. It was like the old days and the small community events at Royal Melbourne Hospital. We got kicked out of the auditorium so security could lock up!’

These days, I mostly attend events for HCPs, presenting at conferences and meetings. I enjoy this part of my work because it means I can provide a PWD perspective of what happens at those events. And I get to be the human face of the topics being discussed. I do love it.

But here I was amongst my people again – my tribe. And it was great to be there.