My Spin On The 2011 Roche Social Media Summit

2011 Roche Social Media Summit Casual Group Photo

A.k.a. "Lean On Me."

I’m back east, having returned from the left coast & the 2011 Roche Social Media Summit, but for some reason my body is still navigating through time zones - SO Right now, my energy is hovering somewhere around Kentucky.

With that being said, I have to say I was really pleased with this year’s Summit.

Here’s a brief 411 (OK, I tried to be brief, but that’s really tough) on the Summit with more posts to follow on all of the subject matter, etc.

This is my third year attending the Roche Social Media Summit, and seeing the other members of The Clan of Diabetes Bloggers is always incredibly special, but this year it felt special to see the folks from Roche too! They are “D Clan” by more than association.

They’ve taken the time to get to know us, both individually and just as importantly, collectively as a community.

Everyone (blogger or not) on Wednesday greeted one another with hugs and a familiarity and that was a wonderful thing.

Cut to the Reunion Dinner later that evening, where we all had the opportunity to catch up and participate in the live twitter #dsma chat

Thursday we got down to business (after some participated in a killer workout with Ginger & Scottie J,) of Diabetes and Social Media.

We discussed a multitude of things, including, but not limited to; costs, as in helping the patient to keep their diabetes costs down. I’ll give Accu-Chek props for doing just that and have implemented the Cash Card Program for 3rd party insurance & cash paying customers .

How does the Cash Card help?

For those with Third Party Insurance it means

 Paying no more than $15 on every test strip prescription*

 If co-pay is greater than $15: discount up to $50 for 50/51-ct purchase, 100/102-ct or greater purchase

For Cash Paying Customers

 Patient takes card to the pharmacy to be entered as primary insurance*

 Discount up to $40 for 100/102-ct or greater purchase  Discount up to $20 on 50/51-ct purchase

For more info on this program, visit www.accu-chekconnect.com

It's all about diabetes options, and this is a great option for those with test strip cover issues re: their insurance, or lack there of.

We discussed How pharma can better engage with their patients both on-line and off and Digital & Social Media Demographics such as:

 Globally, more than 76 million people with diabetes will be online by 2014, a 142 percent increase from today.

 Hundred, thousands of blogs are dedicated to living with diabetes.

 230,000 Facebook members, 18 and over, list diabetes as one of their interests.

 Diabetes is the fifth most popular search term among all health conditions.

 PwD spend over 20% of their time online and in social networks. This has grown 66% from 2009 to 2010.

We discussed PODS . What are PODS? PODS are a nationwide Signature program of monthly meet-ups for women with diabetes around the U.S. courtesy of Diabetes Sisters . org. And are the brainchild of my DiabetesSister & DiabetesSisters founder, Brandy Barns.

Before lunch we had the chance to hear the the Head of Communications for IDF (International Diabetes Federation), Isabella Platon.

I think the IDF is a really wonderful organization dedicated to making sure every child/pwd with diabetes on the planet is able to receive insulin & medical care, and according to their website: IDF’s mission is to promote diabetes care, prevention and a cure worldwide.

I'm all about and for what they do! BUT I'm going to be honest, I felt a disconnect when Isabella spoke.

Not about the subject matter, she knew her diabetes facts.

No, I felt a disconnect with our diabetes on-line community. I don’t care if you read my blog or not, that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about making a genuine effort to know what the community that your speaking to and with.

Engage with us on twitter, facebook, etc.

Be aware of what's going on in the community and the projects that our community is working on, both on-line and off.

Knowing the audience that your speaking to is a wonderful thing and will help all parties to get the word out!

FYI: We had the opportunity to hear the President of the IDF, Jean Claude Mbanya speak at dinner, and I have to say, Jean Claude is one INCREDIBLE, MESMERIZING & INSPIRING PWD. More on both IDF and Jean Claude later.

During lunch we had the opportunity to hear Jeffrey Brewer, father of a type 1 and President & CEO of JDRF. Jeff is “good people” and he sees the big diabetes picture.

Jeff discussed and fielded questions regarding The Artificial Pancreas Pancreas, research regarding the cure, embracing adults with type 1 back into The JDRF family. As a type 1 child who is now all types of grown up, I really appreciate being welcomed back.

More on Jeff’s POV in a later post.

The afternoon was filled with workshops on how to bring the DOC out into other communities, on-line and off,

Collectively as a group, the DOC (and by DOC I mean every, single, one of us in the Diabetes On-line Community, not just those who were in attendance at the conference) have the power to promote change & a better understanding of life and living with diabetes.

But what’s the best way to do this and how to bring it from concept to reality?

At dinner we heard the wonderful Jean Claude Mbanya speak and he inspired all of us in the room to be in-raged regarding those children and adults living with diabetes who don’t have access to medical treatment.

As the wonderful Jean Claude stated: Insulin has been around for 90 years, children should not be dying because they don not have access to it!

The folks from Roche spoke after Jean Claude talked about Health Care Reform, Key implementation dates and

Essential Health Benefits and Minimum Essential Coverage. What’s that?

Minimum Essential Coverage: The coverage required to avoid the mandate penalty. All employer- sponsored health coverage is minimum essential coverage, even if essential health benefits are not provided.

Essential Health Benefits: Benefits that must be covered by a plan offered through the new health insurance exchanges created by health reform. The current health reform law does not require coverage of essential health benefits by self-funded group

health plans or large group market insured health plans outside of the exchanges.

There’s a lot about Health Care Reform, and all of it’s important, but if I broke it down right now, this post would be three days long and my eyes would be crossed from writing it - not to mention the fact that your eyes would be crossed from reading it.

Again - More to follow on this subject.

Friday morning included breakfast, immediately followed by an amazing talk by Dr. Polonsky from the Diabetes Behavior Institute.

Dr. P is damn impressive in my book. He spoke of Diabetes and Depression, Diabetes Tech overload for the PWD, how we can’t do diabetes perfectly, safe glucose getaways, etc.

Again, I can’t cram Dr. P into this Summit Summary, but I will say that he is a very wise man with a wicked sense of humor and is spot on when it comes to the diabetes side of life. !

So, that’s my “short” summery - with lots more to follow on all of the above, and then some!!!

Disclosure; Roche Paid for my flight, my hotel & my expenses, but NOT my opinions.

Like it or not, those are (and always will be) my own!

*** Today, I have the pleasure of guest posting over at Candyheartsblog.com, where I write about growing up as a kid with the broken pancreas.

Please stop on over & Check it out when you get the chance!

http://www.candyheartsblog.com/2011/06/i-was-kid-with-broken-pancreas-but-i.html