Sanofi Data Design Diabetes Q&A

I was fortunate to be able to ask Michele Polz, Head of Patient Solutions for Sanofi US Diabetes a few questions about Sanofi's Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge. The diabetes group at Sanofi has been putting so much good stuff out into the diabetes community since they arrived. When I say 'good stuff' I mean that I've never met a group of people who aren't diabetic that are so dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of the people who are. 

The support that the DOC receives from Discuss Diabetes and Sanofi is immense and they aren't showing any signs of slowing down. I believe that the direction Sanofi has taken when it comes to creating better outcomes for patients is one of the more encouraging things that I've seen in some time. There was a time that if I saw a pharma company getting involved with patients I immediately thought, "hmm, what's their angle... what do they want?". While I can't speak to every pharma or device manufacturer out there, I can tell you that I've met the people at Sanofi and they may be the most dedicated diabetes advocates that I've ever encountered.

After you check out the Q&A take a moment to watch the video and then get your design idea entered! The prizes are substantial! 5 semi-finalists receive, $20,000 for development of the concept prototype, intensive mentorship from industry leaders to hone the concept and participation in a design boot camp. 2 finalists get $10,000 to create a community-based proof-of-concept program and the winner (1) received $100,000 to develop their solution.

1. What is Data Design Diabetes™?

Data Design Diabetes™ is a next-generation challenge that brings together the richness of open data sets, the values of human-centered design, and the leading-edge methodology of the top innovation accelerators, to find the next breakthrough to help millions of Americans living with diabetes.

2. Why is the Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge important to Sanofi?
Sanofi is casting a wide net to meet and help accelerate all of the incredible entrepreneurs who seek to improve diabetes care, by providing them with resources, mentorship, and direct insight from people living with diabetes. The Innovation Challenge is an innovative approach, with unique potential to foster the best solutions, while helping entrepreneurs grow scalable businesses that meaningfully impact healthcare. 

3. Is this year's challenge different than last year's Challenge?
Yes! To kick off this year's Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge and help shape the focus of the challenge, we crowdsourced feedback from people living with diabetes in the U.S. We are also adding a four-day Design & Prototyping Bootcamp where the five semi-finalists will learn about human-centered design, user experience, and rapid prototyping from industry experts. In addition, we are partnering with Startup America to connect the semi-finalists with valuable entrepreneurial resources. These new additions will help drive creative solutions to improve diabetes care, while enabling innovators to develop their concepts into businesses

4. How did you choose the theme for this year's Innovation Challenge?
The crowdsourcing phase of this year’s Innovation Challenge represents an exciting change in this year’s approach – a direct dialogue between people living with diabetes and the Innovation Challenge, to help shape the guidelines for innovators. The results are in! Respondents spoke up to ask that this year’s Innovation Challenge address the following criteria: 

• Create tools to help us feel in control. 
• Understand that diabetes affects families, not just individuals. 
• We want to be well. 

5. Why should I enter my idea to improve diabetes care?

Whether you’re a designer, a data wizard or a developer, regardless of your background and interests, the work you do on this challenge has the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans. Your idea may spur new approaches that help us change the landscape of diabetes care in the U.S. We urge you to submit an idea to help people living with diabetes and their families. 

6. When does the challenge officially open for submissions?

On February 23, 2012, the Innovation Challenge opened for entries. Innovators can submit their concepts now through March 23, 2012, at http://www.datadesigndiabetes.com/enter/.

2012 Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge from Data Design Diabetes on Vimeo.

sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data Design Diabetes from Data Design Diabetes on Vimeo.

Update on 2012-03-30 15:49 by Scott Benner

The semi-finalist have been announced, learn more their innovation ideas at the link. 

Guest Post: Mila Ferrer of Jaime-dulceguerrero.com

I first met Mila Ferrer early last summer while she was investigating different platform options to launch her type I diabetes blog. In only a few months she has proven to be a strong voice in the diabetes blogging community and I am proud to feature her today as my first guest writer. Take it away Mila...

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Hi, I'm Mila Ferrer, I write a blog in spanish about Type 1 diabetes. Why? My younger son Jaime was diagnosed at the age of three. Since then, our family has been learning and educating ourselves about this condition, to be able to provide Jaime the best care. My blog Jaime-dulceguerrero.com is filled with experiences, education and mostly support to other families. During this learning process we've met the most amazing group of parents and patients, people that are as committed to educate and support as we are. This wonderful community or DOC (Diabetes Online Community) is eager to help, promote education and inform about anything that might be useful to us parents and patients. 

As a parent my first search was to meet other families, having a young kid diagnosed with T1 Diabetes can sometimes be overwhelming, and it's nice to know that we are not alone. Thats how I met Scott and Arden, I started reading his blogs and really connecting with his feelings. My family wasn't alone. Scott and I have decided to share some of our posts, that way we'll keep sharing our thoughts and experiences through this journey.

I want to share with you my thoughts and feelings about the DOC. That group of people who are always there to answer questions and lift your spirit when your feeling blue. This link will take you to the spanish version. I also created a tab on the page that is named Mila's Blog, there you'll find some of my posts translated. Hopefully you'll enjoy my posts and find them helpful to you and your family, feel free to ask me anything in english, I'm fully bilingual (sometimes I like writing better in english than spanish). 

You can find me on Twitter @dulce_guerrero (english and spanish information)

or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Jaimemidulceguerrero

Mila

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Please take a moment to check out Jaime-dulceguerrero.com but before you do... dust off your high school spanish and give Mila's DOC post a read... It is linked above but I'm including it in it's entirty right here.

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¿Qué es una comunidad? Para mí, una comunidad es un grupo de personas que trabajan o buscan un fin común. Ese grupo de personas que hablan el mismo idioma, viven experiencias similares y se ven reflejados en otras historias. La comunidad se apoya, busca el bienestar de todos y comparte ideas e inquietudes.

Algunos de mis compañeros de viaje en esta travesía llamada Diabetes.

Afortunadamente cuento con una gran comunidad que apoya a mi familia y me ha servido de ejemplo en este gran proyecto de educación.  Me refiero a el DOC (Diabetes Online Community) o la Comunidad de Diabetes en Línea. Esta comunidad cuenta con tanta gente maravillosa, talentosa, inteligente, pero sobretodo comprometidos con la diabetes. Lo más curioso es que no he conocido personalmente a ninguno de ellos, sin embargo en nuestras conversaciones en Twitter o Facebook es como si nos conociéramos de toda la vida. Siempre dispuestos a ayudar, a contestar preguntas y apoyarte cuando te sientes frustrado.

En muchas ocasiones cuando tengo alguna duda o me ha pasado algo fuera de lo común relacionado a la condición de Jaime, recurro a mis colegas blogueros de diabetes. Através del DOC he conocido padres y madres de otros niños igual que Jaime y pacientes adultos que llevan años manejando la condición. Quién mejor que ellos para contestar preguntas, aconsejar y dejarnos saber que no estamos solos. Ellos viven lo que yo vivo, tenemos las mismas preocupaciones y queremos lo mismo; el bienestar de los pacientes de diabetes.

Durante este mes de noviembre el DOC ha trabajado mano a mano creando conciencia y apoyando las actividades benéficas que provean un mejor tratamiento a los menos afortunados, la Gran Prueba Azul fue un éxito. Otra actividad que hizo el DOC fue crear un intercambio de tarjetas postales entre familias y pacientes diabéticos. Alrededor de 530 personas participaron de este intercambio, Jaime envió postales a Canadá, Australia, Reino Unido y varios estados de los Estados Unidos. De igual manera él recibió tarjetas de estos niños, la carita de emoción de Jaime al leer cada postal fue de gran valor. Inclusive hasta una nueva amiguita por correspondencia hizo. Esta actividad nos relaciona con otras personas y crea un lazo muy fuerte entre los pacientes.

Me siento muy orgullosa de pertenecer a una comunidad tan activa y deseosa de trabajar. Una comunidad abierta a recibirte, dispuesta a ayudarte y compartir entre si educación, información y sobretodo apoyo. No estamos solos, hay toda una comunidad que con mucho gusto y placer te darán la mano cuando lo necesites.

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Mila, gracias por compartir tu blog con mis lectores y por su amistad en elDOC. Mejor de mí, Scott (lo siento, pero tuve que usar Google Translate,espero que funcionó!)

Arden's Uncle Brian Remembers her 2nd Seizure

This is a guest post written by my brother Brian. He was with us in Disney when Arden had a seizure due to low blood glucose. 

It was our last night at the hotel and we were packing. You see we were checking out of the hotel the next morning, going to a breakfast and then heading to the Disney ship for the cruise portion of our vacation. We were all very excited and tired, it had been a long week at the park and we were looking forward to relaxing on the ship. Cole and Arden were sleeping and Scott, Kelly, and I were packing and goofing around - having a really good night. 

What happened over the next 30 minutes or so was without a doubt the most terrifying experience of my life. It also drove home the reality of what type I diabetes is and what it is capable of. 

Screams suddenly came from the other room, the room where Arden was sleeping.  Kelly ran to her and then yelled to Scott that Arden was “seizing”. Arden’s cry was jarring but Scott and Kelly knew exactly what to do. Kelly held Arden while Scott gave her fast acting glucose to bring her blood sugar back up. After a few minutes (that seemed like an eternity) Arden’s BG rose and her seizure ended.

Later after things calmed down and everybody was sleeping I laid awake, still terrified at what I had just witnessed, Arden’s screams still echoing in my head. I could hear her yelling that she could not see (during a seizure she regains the ability to speak before her vision returns). Mostly I thought about how I had struggled to complete the simplest task that I was asked to do during the ordeal. I then questioned whether I was fit to remain Cole and Arden’s legal guardian (should something happen to Kel & Scott). What if it was just me and this happened again? Would I be able to pull it together and give her the help she needed? 

Since that night I try to learn as much as possible about this terrible disease, I speak to Scott and Kelly when ever I can trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I ask about the insulin that they give her, how long it lasts and how it works, about how her BG reacts to different foods and on and on.

We had to skip breakfast the day after Arden’s seizure because were all so exhausted from the night before. We made it to the port on time and then had a fantastic experience on the ship. We stopped in the Bahamas and swam with the stingrays, took a glass bottom boat ride and played on the beach. Arden laughed and had a great time swimming in the ocean with Mom, Dad, Cole and her Uncle Brian. She was all smiles as Mickey fended off Captain Hook during “pirate night”, all as if nothing had ever happened. But it did happen and I spent most of that cruise wondering if and when it was going to happen again.  Once you see first-hand what type I diabetes does to those afflicted with it you forever factor it in to your thinking - there is no escaping it.

I hope that no one ever has to see one of their family members go through something like this and I hope no one ever has to feel as helpless as I did that night. The JDRF is so close to a cure, please please help us eradicate this disease.

Thank you,

Brian

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