For the second year in a row, Connected in Motion partnered with the US nonprofit organization Children with Diabetes to bring their signature program and conference for people with Type 1 diabetes, Friends for Life, to Canada. This event marked Children with Diabetes’ 97th conference worldwide, and the CIM Team was excited to share its magic with families here at home.
The event brings together the Type 1 diabetes community for a weekend of educational sessions, workshops, and lectures for adults and age-specific programming for youth. Speakers included renowned clinicians, researchers, physicians, opinion leaders and industry experts. Youth sessions brought together infants (0-5), elementary aged (6-8), tweens (9-12), and teens (13-17) with type 1 diabetes alongside siblings and children of adults with type 1 diabetes to connect, learn, and have fun under the guidance and supervision of Type 1 and sibling mentors and a dedicated medical team.
We were lucky to welcome over 500 people to the conference this year thank you to the support we were able to provide from our incredible and dedicated sponsors (check them out below!) but realize there are many more who were not able to join us. To help get the lessons learned at the conference out to the world, many of our speakers have provided us with their slides to post online. We are grateful for their willingness to share and help the impact of this conference be felt beyond the walls of the conference building itself. Please enjoy these presentations on type 1 diabetes technology.
Type 1 Diabetes Technology Presentations, Friends for Life 2019
Lorraine Anderson
Lorraine Anderson, RD, CDE, is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator. She has had the privilege of presenting workshops across Canada to both health care professionals and families who live with type 1 diabetes. When not at work, she is a busy mom and stepmom to six young adults and two golden retrievers. Lorraine can be found at a dog park, on a hiking trail, tennis court, golf course or ski hill. She celebrated her 30 year “diaversary” in March of last year and understands firsthand the ups and downs of daily life with diabetes.
Diabetes Tech 101
Lorraine Anderson, RD, CDE, presented an overview of what type 1 diabetes technology currently exists in the space and what is on the radar. From understanding insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems currently on the market and how they work to taking a look at the concept of closed-loop systems and what that might mean for diabetes care, this session was targeted to families and individuals with a beginner to intermediate level of knowledge of T1D.
Kate Farnsworth
Kate has been heavily involved in the Do-It-Yourself #wearenotwaiting movement since her daughter Sydney was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 8. With a background in information technology and graphic design, Kate has lent her skillset to developing diabetes watch faces for remote monitoring used by patients worldwide. Kate has created an online patient-driven support community for people who are exploring DIY closed-loop solutions and continues to advocate for all people with diabetes to have access to the best tools to manage their diabetes.
DIY Diabetes: Understanding your Options (Loop, remote monitoring and more)
Have you heard about the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) pump community? Kate’s presentation provided information for those who wanted to learn more and find out what all of the talk is about. She provided an overview of the many Do-It-Yourself closed-loop solutions from the #WeAreNotWaiting community. This session was targeted to families and individuals with an intermediate to advanced knowledge of Type 1 diabetes who are interested in learning more about DIY options.
Closing the Loop – Advanced Session
For those who had a basic understanding of DIY pumping options and are looking to take things to the next level or who were currently using a DIY solution and wanted to learn more about the future, connect with others in the community, and get your more technical questions answered, Kate Farnsworth led a presentation focused on connecting, discussing, and exploring options. This session is targeted to families and adults with an advanced level of Type 1 diabetes knowledge.
Shivani Goyal
As a Biomedical Engineer and Researcher, Shivani Goyal currently leading a digital strategy for the commercialization of chronic disease management mobile technologies. She has extensive experience in the design and development of evidence-based behavioural mHealth platforms, as well as in evaluation methods, ranging from traditional (i.e. RCTs) to more nimble real-time analytics approaches. Driven by the overwhelming prevalence of chronic illness and the need to revolutionize the traditional models for health care delivery, Shivani is exploring how consumer-focused approaches can enable patients to drive their own care. This involves expanding health care beyond hospital and clinics, and evolving traditional consumer markets (e.g. Pharmacies), communities, even our own homes, to be facilitators of improved health.
R&D in T1D: What’s going on in Diabetes Tech
Dr Shivani Goyal shared an overview of what is going on in the world of Research and Development in Type 1 diabetes. She outlined some of the work and innovative projects going on to support life with Type 1 diabetes through the use of digital strategies and encouraged others to contribute to the discussion and share their own experiences through live-polling and conversation in an interactive session.
