My Experience at the DiabetesMine Innovation Summit

DiabetesMine™ is a popular website on all things diabetes: trends, industry-wide breaking news, and spotlighting patient blogs that I have been following for a number of years. In August when I saw a call for the 2017 Diabetes Mine™ Patient Voices contest, to win a full scholarship to attend the Diabetes Mine Innovation Summit in Palo Alto, CA, my interest was piqued. When I further investigated and saw that this year’s application topic was “Bypassing the System and Innovating Locally,” I knew I had to apply. The topic aligned perfectly with the advocacy work I’ve been engaged with locally in Massachusetts and New Jersey to better support adults living with type 1 diabetes. I was shocked, thrilled, and honored to have been one of ten people selected to receive a scholarship to attend.

I wasn’t sure what to expect or who would be attending, besides the other Patient winners but as soon as I walked into the conference room filled with over 100 industry leaders (and my first endocrinologist from Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston), I knew it was going to be a good conference. The focus of the event was on diabetes tools, support services and problem-solving, with a secondary focus on linking apps and tools to outcomes.

The day was jam-packed with ten sessions. It started with a keynote from Brian Hoffer, founder of Gestalt Design who led us through an engaging presentation titled “Transforming Healthcare Through Design: From Startups to Clinical Consumers.” Other sessions were focused on emerging apps and tools to help make living with diabetes a little easier. The program ended with the 2017 DiabetesMine™ Patient Voices Survey & Usability Innovation Awards.  

Of the ten sessions, there was one in particular that resonated with me more than the others, though they were all interesting and educational. A panel discussion titled “Diabetes Device & Coaching Services” featuring tOneDrop, MySugr , and Livongo that specialize in glucose meters and coaching services. For this presentation, each company was represented by a patient super-user and a company representative to provide different points of view on a variety of topics. What stood out to me with all of these meter companies that have coaching services and subscription-based test strip delivery was the importance each super-user felt about having support at their fingertips when they need it, and that each company was doing its best to help provide a service to help people with diabetes to succeed at every step of the way.   By offering a variety of mail order strip subscriptions at varying price points by customer need that are typically lower than the average insurance co-pay for similar quantity,  they have simplified an often otherwise complicated process.  Gone is the often messy process of obtaining a prescription, waiting to find out the cost or even if your strips are covered by insurance, followed by receiving the strips.  Scott Johnson from MySugr said it best “…it’s about making diabetes suck less at each touchpoint.”

The day was filled with great presentations, as well meaningful conversations during breaks and lunch. It was a unique experience hearing from industry leaders all that they are working on to support everyone living with diabetes.  I learned a lot and left feeling more inspired than ever to continue and further my own advocacy work.

I'm glad to have experienced this event with Mindy Bartelson