October 17, 2013

StripSafely & Tim Gunn's Sports Jacket.

Who doesn't love a sequel to a summer block buster?

OK it may be a stretch to call StripSafely a summer block buster but a guy can dream right?

DSMA's Blog Carnival is revisiting the Strip Issue with this prompt:

What would your comment be on meter accuracy at the Diabetes Technology Society meeting? 


I actually commented as a panelist at the meeting.

Here s a little video clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK0HWO7-JXk

So since there are already comments on record, I will share some of my hopes and make a confession. Let's start with that confession part. I had an ulterior motives creating the campaign.

I wanted to see if we as a community could come together and make a difference through action. 

We can.

We should do it a lot more often.

Here is how I know. The FDA called me, on a Friday evening well after business hours. Nobody work late on Friday unless the boss has bee in their bonnet. Also I got a letter back from my Congresswoman and it was very clear she reached out to FDA and got the official FDA response.

An official response and after hour calls on a Friday are an indication that we, the DOC, managed to get their attention. We need to keep it and use that attention for good. Good to means getting tighter accuracy standards AND requiring all meters systems sold to meet the new standard. No old stuff at or not quite at the old standard still sold. Yes - they could pass a new standard for new products but leave all the old stuff approved in the market. No we should not sit quietly if they do.

Keep int attention to me means moving to include positive feed back into the program. Show the regulatory process some lovin' when they take positive steps. Those of us outside the beltway (and the FDA campus is outside too) know the truth of what the great political commentator and sage Mick Jagger said, "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, You get what you need."

We are not going to get everything we want as fast as we want it from FDA. We are more likely to get it if we ask, often. It is a revolutionary concept in DC process, I know but saying thanks will help.


So, I think, we the DOC will need to keep writing about StripSafely. DC has it little temper tantrums and forgets everything outside their little ticky tack world. We don't have to play that game. We may have differences politically but we all speak BG and all will benefit form better meter systems.

There are other issues too. Ones maybe a little more complex than StripSafely, like approving new insulins or better devices. Our voices as patients can help policy makers serve us, their constituents. Let use some of the lesson learned form StripSafely like;

  • serious and solemn are the same thing so we can have fun with our advocacy 
  • policy makers listen if enough of us speak up
  • it helps to have a central source of information and base request on peer reviewed papers
  • it is a marathon not a sprint 

I'll close with an idea I heard from a leader of a community leader. We have more skin in the game than anyone. We need to learn to wear our emotion not as our heart on our sleeve but as sports jacket. Something that adds a professional appearance to the stature of the facts we present.

Yeah I know a fashion metaphor. I am a regular Tim Gunn (bet seriously, who knows better how to wear a jacket?)



“This post is my October entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetescaf.org/2013/09/october-dsma-blog-carnival-3/“

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