I have spent a lot of time listening to presentations about diabetes. It’s one of the perks of the job – hearing from leading clinicians, researchers and advocates is a privilege I never take for granted.

Often, I am mesmerised as the speaker holds court, sharing details of a new study, intervention, clinical program or anything else that they are working on.

Usually, I sit there interested, listening to what is being said, live tweeting content and wondering what this means for the average diabetes punter in their day-to-day diabetes life. Occasionally I am completely and utterly blown away by something – even if it just a small comment in the overall talk – and that is what happened last Monday.

I had been asked to sit on a panel at the Roche Media event, which is a morning for health journalists. The program was jam-packed and the panel session tied together the presentations from earlier in the day. I was coming from another meeting, so unfortunately, I wasn’t there for the whole morning, but I arrived just in time to hear Professor Stephan Jacob, a diabetologist from Germany.

The theme for the whole day was ‘Connecting the Dots’, with Roche continuing to promote their development of a connected eco-system with PWD in the centre, linked with HCPs, health systems, policy makers, industry, data and more.

I have become pretty good at getting a read on the way HCP and researcher presenters regard PWD. A lot of this is in the language they use (i.e. use the word non-compliant, and it’s not looking good…). Immediately, it was clear from the way Stephan was speaking that he understood the whole self-management nature of diabetes, the burden that a chronic and demanding condition such as diabetes places on the lives of those living with it and those around us, and who is responsible for the day-to-day management of diabetes. It was also clear that he understood the barriers that we face to optimising our own care.

The moment in his talk last week that had lightbulbs going off in every direction was when he made a comment about diabetes messaging, which went something like this:

‘If someone comes into a clinician’s office and has elevated blood pressure, we take note straight away. We consider the right medication and what needs to be done, and then we usually see them again a week later, maybe less. But diabetes? When someone come in with out of range glucose levels, we may make a few tweaks; we may tell them to go for a walk after dinner; we may change some of their medications. And then we tell them to come back in three months. Three months. What does that say about urgency or seriousness? It tells that we don’t really need to do anything urgently; that it’s not important.’

I gasped when he said this, because it is so true. There is no urgency in diabetes. People newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may still be told that they have just ‘a touch of sugar’, which sounds like something a recipe may suggest be sprinkled on top of a freshly baked streusel cake!

We have visits every three, six and often twelve months which may be fine if everything is ticking along nicely and we just need a tune up or to check in. But what about if it’s not?

And what happens when something does occur? When we have a hypo that sends us crashing, wind up in DKA after a day or two of elevated glucose levels, or are diagnosed with complications? We are blamed for not acting swiftly enough. But why would we?

Perhaps part of the issue is that we remain so reliant on A1c checks as a measure of how we are doing, and traditionally, we do these every 3 months. But the limitations of A1c should mean that we don’t rely on that and that alone.

I was thinking to a time where diabetes has felt truly urgent for me, and really, the only time I think it did was while I was pregnant. Sudden changes to patterns in glucose levels were addressed immediately. Instead, changes to therapy were swift and aggressive, and I understood that at that moment how I needed to be diligent about keeping an eye on things, reporting issues and expecting action. And my HCPs knew it too. I had far more regular appointments and at no point during planning for or during pregnancy was I sent away with an indecisive ‘We’ll just wait and see what happens and talk about it when you are in here at your next visit.’

I also know that it was exhausting and draining and that maintaining that level of care is not sustainable in the long term. Burning out is a reality of that sort of scrutiny and constant focus.

But surely there is a middle ground in there where we all understand that while needing to live life alongside a condition and have it fit in with our daily lives, there is also no space for ambivalence or messaging that it doesn’t matter if we just trek along, happy with the status quo, for a few months.

I had a conversation with Stephan later, thanking him for his talk and telling him how that moment of his presentation really rang true. We spoke about how many people with diabetes would be feeling really unwell during periods where they were waiting for something to be done – changes to therapy made, introduction of new drugs… Were they just accepted to feel that way until they were helped to work out how to improve the situation?

Mostly, this resonated as another example of terrible messaging in diabetes; more missed opportunities to optimise care; another time that highlights how people with diabetes actual feel is ignored as we are forced to fit into a system that is not purpose-built for our condition.

Panel discussion at the Roche Diabetes Care Media event. Professor Stephan Jacob is far left. I’m the one who forgot the ‘white shirt/black jacket’ dress code. (Click for photo source.)

DISCLOSURE

Roche Diabetes Care (Global) covered my (economy) travel and accommodation costs to attend their #DiabetesMeetup Blogger event at #EASD2018 and present at their media event the day before EASD. Roche Diabetes Care also assisted with providing me press registration to attend all areas of the EASD meeting. As always, my agreement to attend their blogger day and participate in their media event does not include any commitment from me, or expectation from them, to write about the company, the events or their products.