A Guest Post: The Long Way Back to Believing in Research
By Ryan Fightmaster, Editor of Diabetes Daily Grind. Click here to learn more about Ryan.
I came to take research for granted. Why? Well, it’s complicated. When first diagnosed, you jump in every clinical trial around, usually at the first mention by your doctor. I joined three as a kid. We’re beyond gung ho at this point, we’re pushing the needle toward a cure. Subtly, the years go by. You look around and think, Man, this technology development is pretty awesome, but I’m still on insulin. To hold the belief that one day you’ll eat with no conscious weighing of risks and benefits (I’m not advocating this for anyone, just getting at a point) while also weighing all the risks and benefits of every choice in your life every day for most of your life, is tough.
Eventually, some of us end up slandering the poor mouse who lost its beta cells (unwillingly I might add) to test a novel therapy that ends up curing said mouse of diabetes. Then, we watch said therapy disappear somewhere down the never-ending FDA approval process rabbit hole, hoping and praying that one day (in our lifetime, or our kids’) it will magically reappear at an affordable price.
Before the dawn of DiabetesDailyGrind, this was my stance: stoic in the belief that I will be taking insulin for the rest of my life. But slowly, that attitude has dissolved and morphed into a knowing, a firm stance that one day everyone will be freed from the daily grind of diabetes — not just those in the artificial pancreas trials, or with the funds to eventually own an artificial pancreas. Why the change of heart you may be asking? Because there are so many people working to make it happen.
In January, I attended the JDRF Type 1 Nation Summit in Oklahoma City, where I saw someone in the artificial pancreas trial speak. It was working. It was actually administering insulin for her, with the help of a continuous glucose monitor. There was something about seeing her live, in person, that tangible experience, that made it click: I have to get involved in research too. Let’s hit the tipping point.
Right about here I found TrialReach. Their website, TrialReach.com, is basically the Tinder of clinical trials (without the swiping, weird spam bots, ex-girlfriends, and guilt). With the worst possible analogy out of the way, we can get to why it works. Much of the time, clinical trials are hard to find and once you do find something, you’re left wondering if a better trial is out there (now it’s your turn to make that last sentence into a Tinder analogy).
At TrialReach.com, you start with your zip code, answer a few demographic questions and a few questions specific to your health, and you’re set up with a list of trial choices, near you, that are likely a match for you. In just 41 seconds, I was linked up with 3 possible trials in Oklahoma City where I fit their participant criteria. One trial testing sotagliflozin’s efficacy in type 1 diabetes patients looks really intriguing, if you’re into the whole kidney excretion of glucose thing. They also provide an email sign-up option, where they send the next available clinical trial your way.
We are close. Ten years ago I would have said that close meant a cure 10 years out. Now, I’m removing expectations — just looking to do my part to push that “close” a little farther. It’s time to get involved.
TrialReach is a partner of DiabetesDailyGrind.com. We believe a little transparency is good for us all. Reprinted with permission.
Originally published at blog.trialreach.com on May 4, 2016.
