Stem cell research, the new SEVEN PLUS from DexCom, and the Tethys prediabetes risk test

We’re glad to be able to celebrate a truly momentous season for people with diabetes. I’m referring to President Obama’s bold step to repeal limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which opens the door for scientists to intensify their studies of alternative therapies like the creation of new islet cells for transplant. We’re confident that this increased research will help to improve the lives of people with diabetes giving both patients and doctors another ‘tool in the toolbox’ for diabetes care.

While I’m on the subject, this month brings us the arrival of another highly anticipated tool for diabetes management—the next generation of the DexCom SEVEN! The new model (called the SEVEN PLUS) brings with it a host of important improvements over the old. Personally, I’m particularly excited about the new trend arrows, which are incredibly helpful to have from both the everyday management perspective and the long-term treatment optimization perspective. I also love the differentiated alarms for high and low and the 24 hour trend line, which somehow make me a little more disciplined about what I'm eating! It’s great to see so much progress with CGM and in diabetes technology broadly. Take a look at this issue’s Test Drive for my personal experience with the SEVEN PLUS, and at Conference Pearls for more on a recent visit to Greece to find out more about a key technology conference where a number of our diaTribe Advisory Board spoke.

Any entrepreneurs out there? Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine has a $10,000 prize and a $5,000 prize for anyone thinking of something new that can be developed for us patients. See NewNowNext--the deadline is tomorrow!--and thanks Amy for continuing to think of patients.

Thank you for all your feedback in our recent survey. It was so helpful to get your views and we've been busy integrating them. For example, you told us you wanted much more of Test Drive and New Now Next -- in this issue, New Now Next is longer than usual and there are two Test Drive Columns -- the second is on an excellent new prediabetes risk test from Tethys Bioscience, based just over the bridge from us in Berkeley! Now personally I wish I could take this! But I’ve firmly got type 1 diabetes through and through. The Tethys test examines risk for type 2, and in this day and age, almost everyone knows someone who might be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes (a sibling? child? parent? friend?), and this test can help you find out a person’s chances of developing the disease in the next five years. My great friend Amy Baker wrote about it in a really excellent column. As we know from our advisory board, type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented with proper diet and exercise, so hopefully this test can help motivate those at high risk to improve their health.

Finally, diaTribe is giving away five free Tethys tests in this month's giveaway.

Yours truly,

Kelly L. Close