There's new help for doctors who want to treat the person with diabetes and not feel overwhelmed with data. The people at DreaMed Diabetes are behind the brains of the Medtronic 780G system, but they're hoping to help thousands of people who may never use an insulin pump by making diabetes data a lot easier for doctors to use. This week, CEO and Founder Eran Atlas explains their Advisor Pro system to Stacey.
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Episode Transcription (beta transcription - computer only)
Stacey Simms 0:00
Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes by Gvoke. hypopen, the first premix autoinjector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.
Announcer 0:23
This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 0:28
This week, there is so much data when it comes to diabetes that even your doctor would like an easier way to interpret numbers and make dosing recommendations. A new first of its kind technology called DreaMed may help
Eran Atlas 0:43
with the use of your system. I can stop being a technician I can learn to being a mathematical or an engineer, I learned how to be a physician and I wanted to continue to go and practice medicine. I don't want to go and practice engineering.
Stacey Simms 0:55
That's DreaMed co founder and CEO Eran Atlas, talking about the reaction he's getting from people who use their system will explain what it's all about and how it could help
in Tell me something good. A big award for a doctor you all may know better as an amazing racer, and I learned the word soccerista.
innovations. Let's talk about women and diabetes tech design.
This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.
Welcome to another week of Diabetes Connections. I'm so glad to have you along. I'm your host, Stacey Simms, we aim to educate and inspire about type 1 diabetes by sharing stories of connection, as well as stories of technology. And that's what I'm talking about this week.
And I went into this episode, I gotta tell you sort of thinking it would be one thing, because I know many of you are very familiar with the technology and these companies. DreaMed is behind the algorithm that's inside the Medtronic 780 G, which was just approved in the US. And we actually are talking to Medtronic and our very next episode about that many other things. But the agreement with Medtronic and DreaMed was it was done several years ago. And DreaMed while I'm sure very proud of that algorithm, they've moved forward, they moved on they want to talk about something else. It was very interesting for me to go through this interview, and I hope you enjoy it as well,
for more of the mundane, less technology and more basic, how much more basic can you get with diabetes and insulin? I'll give a quick update at the very end of the show. I had mentioned in a previous show, we had some insurance changes, a bunch of you wants to know how that was going. Hey, yay, insurance changes are always fun. So I will talk more in detail about that at the end of the show. But in terms of insulin, yeah, we're switching types. Don't you love that? We had been on novolog for many years. And then when Benny was I want to say about eight or nine. We switched insurance and they switched us to human log and we have been on that ever since he's 15 and I guess it's time to go back to no vlog. So I'll talk more about that at the end of the show. Luckily, we don't have any issues or haven't had so far I know a lot of people do. Fingers crossed. So yeah, insurance update and more at the end of the show. All right. Interview with the CEO of DreaMed in just a moment.
But first diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop. One Drop is diabetes management for the 21st century. One Drop was designed by people with diabetes for people with diabetes. One Drops glucose meter looks nothing like a medical device you've seen this. It is sleek, compact, seamlessly integrates with the award winning One Drop mobile app, sync all your other health apps to One Drop to keep track of the big picture and easily see health trends. And with a One Drop subscription, you get unlimited test strips and lancets delivered right to your door. Every One Drop plan also includes access to your own certified diabetes coach have questions but don't feel like waiting for your next doctor visit your personal coach is always there to help go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the One Drop logo to learn more.
My guest this week is the co founder and CEO of DreaMed and is really company with the slogan we treat the data you treat the person Eran Atlas talked to me about everything from their partnership with Medtronic. As I said they develop the algorithm that's inside the newly approved 780 G to their newer technology. And this is all about helping doctors better interpret the data they're getting from CGM and pumps. He mentioned a brand new study on this, comparing their algorithm very favorably to outcomes from Yale and Barbara Davis diabetes centers. And I will link that up in the show notes at Diabetes connections.com. I learned a lot from this conversation. I really hope you enjoy it as well. Here's my talk with Eran Atlas of DreaMed.
Eran, thank you so much for joining me. I'm excited to learn more about this. Thanks for coming on.
Eran Atlas 4:49
Thank you very much for having me.
Stacey Simms 4:50
All right. Tell me just generally, what is DreaMed What does this mean for the diabetes community?
Eran Atlas 4:56
Well, you know, for a certain amount of years A lot of effort has been invested on, let's get more accurate glucose measurements, let's get more continuous glucose measurements, let's get those glucose measurements and insulin measurements being connected. And everybody told us that if we will have more data, more accurate data, more accessible data, all the problems about managing people with diabetes will be solved, right, because the patient will be more knowledgeable, the providers will be more knowledgeable, will have the tools to get into a better decision.
Now DreaMed started as a technology team within one of the biggest Institute's that treat people with diabetes, Type One Diabetes here in Israel. And what we saw there is that data is not all and and sometimes in order to make this analogy, these logic thinking between data and decisions, there is a lot of gap that you need to jump in order to make that move. You need to be experience, you need to know what is important, what's not important, and you need to be able to make the right decision in the right time for the right patient. So what dreamed is taking on is we would like to take the responsibility of allowing providers and patients to make better decisions about insulin dosing.
When we started in 2007, the Holy Grail was okay, let's try to develop these automated insulin delivery algorithm that will make these decisions in real time. And we managed to do a prototype and we published these results as were the first publication in New England Journal of Medicine. And finally, after didn't several clinical trials send people home, we were the first group in the world that sent people home with automated insulin delivery, we licensed that to Medtronic diabetes. But the cohort of people that are going to be using are currently being using automated insulin deliveries pretty small depend on the amount of people with diabetes type one type two that needs to make decisions about insulin. So what dreamed is now focusing is on developing those and commercializing those algorithms that will be able to take all the vast amount of data that's out there, and it can be accessible from cloud to cloud, mobile and everything. And how do we get into the most accurate, personalized decision about how much insulin a specific person with diabetes need to infuse? Not just in terms of real time, but more about looking on the treatment plan? How to optimize carb ratios? How to optimize basal treatment, how to optimize insulin sensitivity factor? What is the difference between a patient on an insulin pump to a patient that is using multiple daily injections based on only different kinds of types of injection regimen? That's what DreaMed right now to do. So we would like to make sure that we will treat the data. So a person with diabetes can continue to live in a provider can start dealing with the person that is in front of them and not just looking into the computer, making himself a technician with numbers and decide what to do.
Stacey Simms 8:04
you have heard the podcast. So you know, I'm easily overwhelmed by data and information. I listened to everything you said. And here and I'm trying and here's what I heard. We want to make life easier for you. There's too much information that comes your way even with accurate CGM. Even with automated insulin delivery, there's so much data and information that unless you are a numbers person, you know, you may not be able to crunch it yourself. And I know you, you mentioned already a lot more down the road. But if I could focus on that the automated insulin for just a moment and come back to some of the other things. Can you just tell me as I'm listening and please correct me if I'm wrong, Vinnie, my son is using control IQ with the algorithm that's inside the Tandem pump using partnering with Dexcom. Is this sort of that? Is that the first step that you're talking about when you talked about automated insulin? Is it the algorithm that controls the pump in the CGM together?
Eran Atlas 8:56
Correct. We started in 2007. Building such an algorithm at the time we called him the medical doctor, the MD logic artificial pancreas. And the idea of what is different between the algorithm that we developed back then and the one that you have right now in control IQ, is how do you make these real time decision about how much insulin to infuse and, and while control IQ, as you may know, is using MPC technique, a Model Predictive Control, and you have that model of Medtronic that uses a different kind of type of control. It's coming from the engineering world, we were strong in understanding how physician analyze data and what we did is we took a technology called fuzzy logic, and I thought you know what fuzzy logic is but I'm sure you have it in your washing machine, and you have it in trains in China and everything. And the idea behind fuzzy logic is that you know why the world is not one and zero black and why there has to be a mathematical way to make decisions based on gray areas. And it's pretty much the way that we're thinking as a person.
So, we took his the way that physicians analyze data, make a decision and automated using dispatches fuzzy logic. And we develop these automated insulin delivery algorithm. And we tested it and when he got the the ability to communicate with Medtronic pumps, and now, we have our some part of our algorithm is going is inside the Medtronic 780G that they announced that they got to see mark for that in June DC or in there, I'm sure that they're going after that the FDA, the main difference between what we did and what happened in control IQ and Medtronic 670 G, is the fact that we were the first that play with the changing automatically both the basal and bolus. And we have the ability to predict glucose into the future and dose insulin based on the predicted glucose. Some of the elements that we have, you have also in control IQ. And I noticed Ctrl Q is working pretty well. But one of the things that we had in that time is the understanding that there's a lot of sensitivities off the patient that these AI D algorithm will need to use. So for example, when you are using your control IQ, you still need to go through your meals, right? So you need to optimize your carb ratios. And some of the safety limits are still dependent upon the insulin sensitivity factor off the pump or the open loop basal rate of the pump. So the algorithm is like riding on that basal rate. So we had a similar methodology. And we developed these what we call today, the DreaMed Advisor. It's that algorithm that optimize the sensitivity factors. So I back into the time we have two pieces of our technology. We only licensed one of it to Medtronic. And we continue to develop the other one because we believe that the other one will have a much more larger number of people with diabetes.
Stacey Simms 12:01
So tell me about that other one, where will it be used? Or you're talking about people with type two or people who use insulin, any type?
Eran Atlas 12:08
So that's an interesting question. So we just we started with an algorithm that basically optimize open loop pump therapy, and we took data from CGM at the beginning. And history of pump delivery basically did an automated way what any physician is doing in the clinic right now. And we developed that technology we got we won a grant from Helmsley Charitable Trust back then in 2015. I out of 70 applicant applicants got $3.5 million to evaluate the performance of this algorithm versus doctors from Joslin Diabetes Center, the School of Medicine yell, Barbara Davis in Colorado University of Florida, within three sites in Europe, with the intention to show that if you are a physician, any kind of type of physician that uses all algorithm, you'll get into the same clinical outcome as if that patient data was analyzed by doctors from these leading academic diabetes centers. And yesterday, the results of the study were published in Nature medicine, showing that we are doing the same outcome. As expert Doc's. If you can think about it, 60% of the cohort, we type 1 diabetes, the adults one are being treated by primary cares where we can do to the to the glucose control of these patients, if we will equip those primary cares with a technology that helps them analyze data and get the same performance as special endocrinologist, what we can do to the touchpoint of changing the insulin treatment of a patient, if instead of the patient will need to wait 3, 4, 6, 8 months to see his endo will have some sort of virtual place that he can send the data and share the data with the algorithm the algorithm will make all the calculation and recommend how to change the insulin dosage or the insulin treatment plan of that patient. So that was the what we did so far. And when we approach FDA, we that FDA didn't know how to regulate such a device. Yeah, because there was no predicate to what we offer to FDA to do. So what we managed to do with a very strong partnership with the FDA team is to decide and we will regulate this device as a new product. So in 2018, we got FDA clearance based on 510 k de novo. So we are the first in the US system that regulated a product that an algorithm can take continuous glucose sensor data and make recommendations to our healthcare providers how to optimize insulin treatment for our patients.
Stacey Simms 14:44
So I'm trying to break it down because that does sound like such a useful tool. I'm an adult with type one, I'm seeing a general practitioner who may not know the nuances of treatment, they take my CGM data, they take my dosing data either I'm assuming either from a pump or from me They send it to your service, the care provider, the doctor then gets the data back and can give the patient advice based on your technology using the expertise and you know, from the algorithm. And that new study said that advice is comparable to Yale and Barbara Davis and all the places that you indicated. Did I get that right?
Unknown Speaker 15:21
Exactly.
Stacey Simms 15:28
Right back to Eran in just a moment. And he's going to be explaining their agreements with other diabetes groups like Glooko, like Tidepool, but first diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And do you know about Dexcom clarity, it's their diabetes management software. And for a long time, I just thought it was something our endo used, you can use it on both a desktop or as an app on your phone. It's an easy way to keep track of the big picture. I try to check it about once a week, it really helps Benny and me dial back and see longer term trends, and help us not to overreact to what happened for just one day or even just one hour. The overlay reports help add context to Benny's glucose levels and patterns. You can even share the reports with your care team, which makes appointments a lot more productive. managing diabetes is not easy, but I feel like we have one of the very best CGM systems working for us Find out more at Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. Now back to my interview with Eran Atlas
Eran Atlas 16:27
And the way that it has been flowing in so we sign a data partnership with gluco. With Dexcom, we take all we have our own platform, so the patient can download the data at home, he doesn't have to get physically to see the provider, which is super important, especially now when it COVID-19 is and then the data is coming to our system, all the provider needs to do is just push a button request the recommendation here we'll get that recommendation and nothing's going to get you know, blurred the things you know, please consider looking on. He will get exact numbers that the algorithm will tell them listen at 6am change the call ratio, that specific patient from one to 15 to one to 10 exact numbers.
Stacey Simms 17:11
All right, I have two questions. From a very practical point of view. I'm curious if you've run into a provider who says I can do this better? I don't need this. Sure. I don't know the difference between Lantus and Tresiba. I'm a general practitioner. But why do I need something like this? Have you run into resistance from providers? Or are they I could see the flip side, thank goodness for taking this off my hands because I don't have the time to learn all of this.
Eran Atlas 17:37
So there are two types of providers. So first of all, that the approval that we have right now the clearance that we have with FDA is just for type one people on insulin pump, we are pursuing the advance of the indication for use for the injection cohort and with the intention to submit it by the end of the year. But in the study that we did, and right now we are we already deployed the system in several clinics around the US. You know, we are in Stanford University, University of Florida, New York University, Texas Children's so that we are already people who have already more than 1000 people that use the technology. And so when we heard for them, these couple of things. So number one, it became they curious, they want to check, we want to make sure that we didn't make any false recommendations. And they're not agreeing 100% with anything that we are recommending. So we always allow them to edit. If there's anything that they would like to edit, they can edit it before they share it with a patient. But as time goes on, and they building their confidence with a system, they are relying on the system, and they're really feeling how they've helped them. So for example, Dr. Greg Forlenza from Barbara Davis said, you know, what would you use of your system, I can stop being a technician, I can learn to be a mathematical or an engineer, I learned how to be a physician. And I wanted to continue to go and practice medicine, I don't want to go and practice engineering. So this is one of the feedbacks. And I think that when we'll code to the mass numbers of providers, there will be different kind of providers, some of them will be resistance, but I think that one thing we'll see the clinical benefit and the response of their patients, I think that it will endorse that and it will build our confidence with it.
Stacey Simms 19:17
I love that that he doesn't want to be an engineer, he wants to be a physician. We should all be so lucky to have a doctor who wants to do that. My other question on this and I'm apologizing just throw things at you to mess up the system. But the first thing I thought of was somebody like my son who's a not an unbiased person, but he's a great kid. He is not a perfect diabetes person. Perfect example that I think would mess up your algorithm. This morning. He had I don't even know coffee, hot chocolate glass of juice. I don't know what he had. But he had something as he's going to virtual school to. He's he's right down the hall for me so I could go ask him, but I can see that his blood sugar has already gone up to 140 it'll drift back down thanks to control IQ. I don't know if he bolus for that drink. If or If people just after, what is the algorithm do when people aren't, quote, perfect diabetics, because you can adjust the carb ratio and the basal rate all you want, but most people with type one aren't automatons who are going to fit an algorithm?
Eran Atlas 20:14
Oh, that's an excellent question. I think that at the end, if you are creating something for the use of people, you have to understand that nobody's perfect. And you have to make sure that the recommendation that you are providing will be a right on the spot, because otherwise it will cause safety issues. So what we are doing, when we're taking the data, number one that we are doing, we are trying to split that data into events, and understand, okay, that's a meal event, that's a bonus event, that is events that usually debatable could make an influence because there's no BOCES a meal. Before afterwards, we also apply different kinds of techniques to automatically detect places where the patient ate, and the bowls for that, or didn't report the name use these calculator in order to calculate the amount of light and and then for each one of the events, we are trying to ask the algorithm is asking himself Okay, is it a issue of dosing problem? Or is it an issue of behavioral problem? Do we see the high glucose posted meal because the carb ratio is wrong, or because the patient just deliveries, bolus 1520 minutes after the meal, and there's no way that the glucose could be down? So we are from our experience, because we are so much integrated with doctors that understand data. And because you know, I'm here, ces 2007 is closing my 14th. year on February, we know so much about people with diabetes, how they behave. So we programmed the algorithm in that way. So the recommendation that we are delivering is on the spot. If we're saying that we don't have enough events that imply on changing and dozing will not issue that we can personalize even the behavioral messages and calculate what is the most important behavioral that will improve the timing range. And we're not issuing 20 types of behavioral messages. Learn to be have a message note, we're issuing no more than three. And we're very specific. So if we're seeing something that happened specifically on the breakfast of Benny world, tell him listen, Benny, please pay attention on breakfast, deliver the insulin, 10 minutes before the meal, because that's what's set what makes your entire day being hot. Or if we're seeing that when he has an iPhone, you just eat whatever he finds in the refrigerator. And we see it from from the dynamics, we're trying to teach him how to compensate for a high pole in a better way.
Stacey Simms 22:46
It's absolutely fascinating. I think that's tremendous that you're building in the behavior as well. And you can really account for it back to the automated systems. And forgive me, Eran, you used a term open loop rather than closed loop and pardon my ignorance, you explain what that is?
Eran Atlas 23:02
Sure. So open loop is what we call using pump therapy with CGM or with self management blood glucose meters without any ID system. So though some people call it sensor augmented pump therapy, some people say just a regular insulin pump therapy. Some people say it's open loop, there is no algorithm that closed the loop in real time and command in real time how much insulin to infuse on an insulin pump based on CGM data.
Stacey Simms 23:33
Okay, if we go back to the algorithm that is more closed loop and kind of looking ahead for what you're planning on that we've already talked about mealtime, boluses, and how challenging they are for people, whether it's estimating correctly or remembering to do them or doing them late. What's your plan for that? I know there were a few AI systems that are looking to try to do away with a manual mealtime bolus is that in the cards here.
Eran Atlas 23:56
So for us is not on the cards at a moment. I think that what we are trying to look is is beyond the AIP system. It is how to help those with type two on insulin, how to have those on injections because think about it a couple of years ago, nobody knew what's going on with people that still doing injections, right? None of them knew CGM you didn't know what's going on with injections because they didn't record that or they just cheating and when they sat in, in the reception area of the clinic, they to complete the paper and and try to make lottery on when they did at those doors. They're instantly now these days been available thanks to the hard work that Dexcom you know avid Medtronic is doing on the CGM space and companies like companion medical and others they're doing you're connected to and and we know other efforts of other companies. You know, no voice is doing that Louie's doing that. So all of a sudden the same problem that we had a couple of years ago when people on CGM and pumps for the type one persons and depression And the amount of data, we're not going to have it in a much, much broader population, you have about 12 million people that dose insulin in the US, but only 1 million of them are on pumps with type one. So the question is, what are you going to do with these 11 million people? And that's where our focus on that's number one, another focus that we are looking at is going into contextual data? And how can we know and combine the fact that we can know where you are from your personal life in terms of you know, if you are driving or you are walking, or you are going into a restaurant? And how to combine that information with the glucose data? And what predictive real time notification we can give you in order to improve that, and the glucose control?
Stacey Simms 25:49
Alright, wait, wait, you're gonna know where I'm driving? I'm walking to a restaurant. Wait a minute back up? Are you in my this is something in my phone? Are you using cell data?
Eran Atlas 25:58
That's easy. You know, when you're driving? Do you have a Bluetooth in the car? Yes. So the phone knows that you are connected to the Bluetooth of the car, right? Yes. So for example, if you will give the permission, our application will be have the knowledge that you are driving? Are you using navigation software?
Stacey Simms 26:17
Yes. Do you have to lift or no, I don't mean to interrupt your train of thought here. But for some reason, I just thought of the Pokemon Go app from a couple of years ago, because it knew when my kids were in the car and not walking, right. I mean, I know I sent you're probably laughing because I sound so ignorant with this stuff. But yeah, with our cell phones, I'm sure that everybody knows where we are at all times. It's
Eran Atlas 26:37
amazing. That's right. But I think again, so I'm not talking about you know, poking your privacy and everything. And it's have to be on a certain things that that the user will need to authorize, or the benefit of the user, but but potentially, many will learn driving, like they will go into any driving license, I'm sure that nobody wants a person with diabetes, that these glucose is going down or predicted to be down in next 30 minutes to start driving.
Stacey Simms 27:05
So would it give in your system, would it then give a reminder, um, you know, I'm walking into a restaurant time to bolus Is that what you're envisioning.
Eran Atlas 27:13
So again, your glucose is dropping in the next 30 minutes it please take something before you start to drive. Or we're seeing that you're going into a restaurant and you're using glucose is sky high, or going high and the high trend, please correct your glucose now before start eating, because then it will be much more difficult to correct your glucose. These are the types of things that you know are examples of how you take context and combine it together with glucose and insulin data.
Stacey Simms 27:41
It's so interesting to me, because I think, especially with the type two community who use insulin, it's a very different world than the type one community where most people well, I'm biased, because my podcast audience is so well educated. But people are thinking about it so much more often. I have lots of friends with type two, who dose insulin who don't really think about it, who don't really know, just because they're, as you said, they're seeing a general practitioner, they're not as educated. It's not a it's not a personality flaw. And I could see where this would be so helpful. Just these reminders with people with type two, have you already learned any nuances of how they want to use this kind of system? Is it different than people with type one?
Eran Atlas 28:22
So I think that within the type two population is very much dependent when there are on multiple daily injection therapy, or they're just doing basic only. So that's one big difference between type two and type one another big difference is Yeah, like you said, they're thinking about the condition differently. They are denying the fact they have a condition. I think that's much stronger than people with type one, especially teenagers with type one that you know, try to break the system and try to see what's going on. But it's still you need to find other ways to do that. And we're still studying eighth, what is the best way to deliver that to people that have type two diabetes. And that's why initially we're focusing on their providers, and try to better understand what people that are treating people with type one diabetes would like to see how we can help the providers provide a better treatment for them. That will be our first step, then when we will get these endorsement and understanding about the actual users will be much more comfortable to offer something that will go directly to the user because as you said it truly it's a different population. I remember
Stacey Simms 29:31
years ago, there was a big push and I know you were you were around. If you started in the mid 2000s, there was this big push to almost gamify type 1 diabetes, right with apps that kind of gave you rewards for checking or here's a game that would help kids learn or even adults. And it turns out that most people didn't want to think that much about it. They just wanted the system to take care of it like stop reminding me to log stop reminding me to dose handle it. Talk to me about how DreaMed will do that. Even though You are talking about reminders,
Eran Atlas 30:02
because I think that the difference between the reminders that are in the market, they used to be in the market. And what I'm trying to talk about is that those reminders were based on general timeframe. So for example, you know, you're logging into the app that you need to take your basal insulin between seven and 9am. And and now it doesn't matter if you are going just to go into deliver that it will be some sort of mechanism to just ping that, that reminder to you and will drive your crazy, right? I think that what dreamin is trying to do is a couple of things. Number one, we're not just giving them regular reminders, we're giving actionable reminders, so it will tell you to do something, because this is the right time for you to do these actions. And number two, we are trying to take off the burden of treating diabetes, you know, taking the burden off thinking about your glucose and thinking about what you need to do right now, for people that use a ID system. This is exactly what he gave them, you know, you know that there is something that looks on your glucose on a regular basis every five minutes, analyze the situation and provide your the actual dozy, but on people with with multiple daily injections are not using pumps. So there is the only way to make the insulin injected is to make some sort of a partnership with a user. So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to create all the mechanisms that will bring this partnership between the person with diabetes on injections and the algorithms, we're trying to make sure that wherever we are issuing some sort of reminder, it will be an actionable one. And and hopefully it will be within a certain timeframe that the user is willing to accept such a reminder, because for example, if you're driving and then the system is shouting out, give insulin right now there's no way that you're going to give that insulin right because right now you're driving. But if we're able to capture the exact moment that you're open to get that reminder, and this international reminder, it's not a general one, I hope that people with diabetes will find it useful. And I think that's the thing that we are trying to learn together with the community. And to be are we personally diabetes at work for us, because at the end, it's a partnership between the person, the provider and the industry. And that's what we're trying to create. It's important for people to know that there are companies that are not in the US and might be a little bit small, but they are trying to make a difference for you. And I hope that together with what we're trying to do and what the community is trying to do, when we are partnership, we really, really be able to make that difference. Because the culture of dream ed is coming from a clinic. It's a company that the importance of making lives better is on our culture. Another thing in our countries, make sure that whatever we're issuing has a clinical benefit. We're just not not just want to have a cool product and just get more money. And I really, really optimistic about the impact that we can do on people with diabetes. And we're committed to do that
Stacey Simms 33:14
around before I let you go. Do you mind if I ask about the population with type one in Israel? Sure. I'm trying to think I know in Scandinavian countries, it's very high.
Eran Atlas 33:23
it's debatable, but it's between 30 to 50 k people in type 1 diabetes in Israel, this is it. But we don't have a lot of people with type 1 diabetes. If you're looking on the pieds all the peas are being treated by you know, academic centers, big hospital clinics, the clinic that I'm coming from, is pretty much treating a very large portion of this of the kids and adults are usually go in the same way either to a specialist, but the most of them are going into two primary cares. Where were very techie we were had a lot of a lot of people on CGM and insulin pump. We currently don't have control IQ and ease rail. It's not approved so and 670 G is not reimbursed so the majority of the cohort here in Israel are on regular pump and CGM.
Stacey Simms 34:11
This is well as I said, before we started taping, my son is planning a long trip to Israel next summer. So maybe knocking at your door if you're just some hand holding.
Eran Atlas 34:22
I will be happy to I will be happy. Don't worry. Yeah, I think I can vouch for that.
Stacey Simms 34:29
Everyone, thank you so much for joining me in explaining all this. I really appreciate it. I hope we can talk again soon.
Announcer 34:39
You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 34:45
More information in the show notes Just go to Diabetes connections.com. And every show has show notes we call them I call it an episode homepage as well because not every podcast player supports the amount of stuff I put There, every episode this year has a transcript. Every episode ever has links. And so sometimes if you go to Apple podcasts or if you listen on, you know, Stitcher or Pandora, or wherever you listen, and we are everywhere, right now, they don't support the links. So if you're ever curious, or you can't get to something, just go to the homepage and find the episode, there's a very robust search, because we're up to 325 episodes. So I wanted to make it easy for you to find what you were looking for. But when you do that, you can find more information about DreaMed, and I linked up the study as well that he mentioned, comparing their algorithm to doctors at Yale, that sort of thing. You know, I'm curious, as you listen, what you think about something like this, I feel like this podcast audience is so involved in their numbers in a way that most people in diabetes land are not. I mean, let's face it, there's very few people who are interested in DIY stuff like this audiences. I mean, I know you guys, you're very technical, you're very involved, even if you're listening, saying, hey, that's not me, the very fact that you're listening to a podcast about diabetes puts you in a different educational plane, then, you know, 90 95%, let's say, of all people with all types of diabetes, which is not a knock on them, it's just the reality of diabetes and education. So I'm really curious to see how this can help. Because as he's saying, you have a general practitioner, who's treating people who's dosing insulin, right, they're given the prescriptions out. And an algorithm like this can make it so much more precise and safe for the people who are getting those recommendations from these doctors who, you know, might really want to do good, but do not have the experience of the education in at a chronology. So that's my stance on it. We'll see what happens I'd love to know what you think. All right, innovations coming up in just a moment. And I want to share this article I found about women in diabetes a device design, but first diabetes Connections is brought to you by a new sponsor this week. I am so excited to welcome g Volk hypo pen. You know, almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar. And that can be scary. A very low blood sugar is really scary. And that's where evoke hypo pen comes in Jeeva is the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar. evoke hypo pen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. That means it's easy to use, how easy is it, you pull off the red cap and push the yellow end onto bare skin and hold it for five seconds. That's it, find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the G Vogue logo. g Vogue shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma, visit Jeeva glucagon.com slash risk.
saw a great article that I wanted to pass along to you from the wonderful folks at diabetes mine. And the headline on this is where are the women in diabetes device design? And I'm not going to read the whole thing to you I will link it up. But the question here was all about our the shortcomings of diabetes technology a result of just the the functional design requirements the way it has to be made? Or could it be related to the fact that there aren't enough women in the medical technology design field, they did a whole survey about you know wearing this stuff, and you know where to attach it, how to put it, you know, dresses, things like that, which you know, at first, listen may sound kind of silly. But when you think about it, wearing the device, the comfort of wearing the device, the mental stress about wearing the device, these are so incredibly important, because people with diabetes men and women, as you know where this stuff 24 seven, I mean, you think about the difference between something that is clunky, that looks outdated, that, you know, just doesn't feel right in your hand. I mean, these things make a big difference in terms of how I hate to use the word compliant, right, but you know, how well we use them how much we use them how comfortable we are with them, in addition to focusing on the pump companies, and in particular Omni pod, very, very interesting take on women who work at Omnipod there, they also focus on women designed accessories for diabetes tech, because when you think about it, and they list all of these companies, you know, we've talked about a bunch of them in the past myabetic and funky pumpers spy belt tally gear pump peels, one of my book to clinic sponsors, thank you very much pump peels, these are all founded by women, because they saw the need and wanted to make life easier and better. So I'll link that up. I really thought it was a great look at a topic that we hadn't thought a lot about before. We focus a lot on what patients need to be involved people with diabetes who actually wear the gear need to be involved. But what about people who wear the gear differently and have different expectations and that by that I mean women. My daughter when she was in high school, wrote a whole paper on pocket equality and did hard research into why women's clothing doesn't have pockets and rarely has pockets that are big enough. I mean, my son puts his phone and his palm I don't know, you know, a lunchbox in his pocket, and he can fit everything in there. He doesn't think twice about it. But sometimes I think about where the heck would I put a pump, if I was wearing what I'm wearing today, right, I have any pockets. Really interesting discussion and hats off to diabetes mine for focusing on that innovations is also your chance to share hacks and tips and tricks that work for you, you know, just little things that make life better with diabetes. So you can post in the Facebook group, or you can email me, Stacey at Diabetes connections.com.
Didn't tell me something good this week, a big award for a familiar face around here. Most of you remember Dr. Nat Strand from The Amazing Race. She was the in the team of Nat and cat. And that was The Amazing Race 17, which I can't believe was 10 years ago. We talked to Dr. strand, earlier this year about working as a physician. And during this time of COVID. And how she was treating her patients. She treats patients with chronic pain and that sort of thing. And we're talking about her on tell me something good, because she is the inaugural winner of the Lisa Stern's legacy Diversity Award from the American Society of pain and neuroscience. So congratulations, Dr. strand. Of course, the ceremony was virtual, but you could follow her on Twitter and see the pictures and see what nice things people are saying about her and I will link up her Twitter account if you don't follow her already. Also, in Tell me something good. Something that popped up in my local group. Brian shared a post about his daughter Emerson about diabetes and soccer. And he said I could share it. And it's actually a story about her. It's a story by her. It is Emerson's sucker rista story playing with diabetes. And this is a column that Emerson wrote that is published on the girls soccer network, I would really urge you to read it especially if you have a child who is a high performing or wants to be a high performing or elite athlete. She talks about no days off. And how well you know I'm sure your mind went to diabetes. That was her mantra in terms of sports. And it has really helped her she says deal with soccer. And with diabetes. I'm not going to read her words here. I just think it's a great column I would urge you to read it I'll link it up on the episode homepage and I'm going to put it in the Diabetes Connections Facebook group as well. Well done Emerson really great to see the incredible hard work that it looks like you've been putting in and what a wonderful column as well. So thank you so much Brian for sharing that and for letting me talk about it a little bit here. If you have a Tell me something good story could be a birthday a diverse serie, you know, your child has published in a national print publication, you know, anything you want to focus on, that is good news in the diabetes community, please reach out and let me know, just tell me something good.
Tell me something annoying, could be the name of this segment, I just want to talk a little bit about our insurance changes, mostly to commiserate with with many who have gone through this. So as I said at the top of the show, our biggest change is now that they're going to switch insulin on us. You know, I talked to Benny about this, we are so fortunate to have a frankly, have a pretty good stockpile of insulin that we've built up. If you follow the show for a long time, you know that I've discussed his insulin needs went way up. And they have gone back down to almost pre puberty levels. But we never changed the prescription. So you know, I have unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know I have shared insulin in the Charlotte area with adults in need. We have some great local groups. And it is ridiculous that we need to do this, but we do share with each other. And I've been happy to help out on that. But we are basically out of pins. And I like to use pins as a backup. And Benny likes to have them for flexibility. You know, he'll take them sometimes. And if something's wonky with his pump, he knows he can get himself a shot, that sort of thing. But I hate the idea of changing insulins right everything's cookin right now everything's chugging along really well. I don't want to rock the boat. But I also don't want to pay $300 for a pen. So I'm going to be talking to our endocrinologist, Vinny has an appointment in two weeks, as I'm taping probably more like a week and a half as you listen. And we know we'll talk about it, then maybe have some samples, but most likely we will be switching and we did not have an issue when we switched in the past. So I have fingers crossed that it will be fine. It'll be fine. But that is annoying. And I know I don't feel like appealing and fighting if we don't need to. It's possible that novolog will work just as well for him. So let's at least find out and we'll go from there. The other issue was, of course, that we are now dealing with edgepark. And I will spare you all of the details. But I tried to do a workaround. And I'm laughing because I should know better by now. I tried to get the Dexcom prescription to stay at our pharmacy because man we've been filling it at the pharmacy for the last couple of years. And if you have already been able to do that, you know, it's like a dream. At least it is for us. It may take an extra day to get it but it's a day. It's not like they're mailing it out for you and it takes three weeks. It's been wonderful. And I just had on auto refill. And it's been great. But edgepark told me, we don't filter your pharmacy, you only can do it mail order. Well, I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to be cut short. So I let edgepark go ahead and fill the order. But then I did some detective work. And I kept calling and talking to people, because what else do I have to do, but be on the phone with these people? And I finally got someone at my insurance company to admit they would fill it at the pharmacy. But here's what she said. She said, Well, we don't like you to go to the pharmacy, because they don't often have it in stock. And I said, Come on, you know, that's not true. They can fill it in a day. They've been filling it for four years. And she said, Okay, well, you can you do a pharmacy benefit and, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I hung up the phone, and I will fill it at the pharmacy next time. I already have the order from edgepark through the mail. And I thought you know, that's just because my insurance company has a deal with edgepark. That's all that is. She's trying to discourage me from going to the pharmacy because that's their business. I get it. But how stupid is that? How outrageous is that? Oh, now you know why I saved it to the end of the show. I will keep you posted on our many adventures as this moves forward. Because Up next, I have to fill Benny's tandem pump supplies. And we've never been able to do that at the pharmacy. So I'm sure it'll be more adventures with edgepark my new pals. Ah, goodness gracious. All right. Thank you to my editor john Kenneth for audio editing solutions. Thank you. If you are still here, listening to me rant. I love you. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here next week. Until then, be kind to yourself.
Benny 46:35
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