Scientific and Clinical Exchanges
The Value for Patients
July 01, 2010
Alexis Pollak, Type 1 Diabetes Patient
As a person with diabetes, I see a lot of healthcare providers—my CDE for diabetes management, my eye doctor for diabetic eye exams, a podiatrist to make sure my feet are healthy, and many others. I put a tremendous amount of faith in these healthcare providers to tell me what I need to do to stay healthy at each visit. I take their words to heart and I trust their recommendations. I am, in effect, the recipient and product of their current education and knowledge: a healthy patient.
This is why it is so important that healthcare providers are able to congregate to exchange, educate, debate and innovate with each other. If two heads are better than one, imagine what can happen when thousands of healthcare providers and scientists are given the opportunity to develop their diabetes knowledge base as a collective. Sharing the latest information and best practices brings benefit to the person at the end of that information stream—the patient.
The American Diabetes Association’s Annual Scientific Sessions is the paramount meeting of the minds studying diabetes—a chance for the best-of-the-best in the diabetes space to come together and talk shop on a grand scale. The meeting is an opportunity to put the strength in numbers behind small ideas that just might change the world. The ADA Scientific Sessions isn’t just a convention of talking heads. It’s a cascade of invaluable information with the ability to reach a patient in need. Potential life-changing and life-saving knowledge—to be collected, shared, and dispersed to people struggling with diabetes every day—far outside of that exhibit hall and sessions.
As a person with diabetes, I’m used to having to fight for myself. I test my own blood sugar, I adjust my insulin, and I make the decisions that affect whether or not I live a long and healthy life. Patients with diabetes have a tremendous amount of self-accountability. But to do this effectively, we have to know what the treatment goals are for our disease and what options we have to manage to those goals. We trust our healthcare providers to be a resource for best practices, medications, and up-to-date information. No one healthcare provider can possibly know everything on his or her own but the power of coming together to innovate, share and develop together is infinite. And the impact it can have on a patient’s life is priceless.
Alexis Pollak is a Diabetes Sales Specialist at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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