It’s “In the News…” Got a few minutes? Get caught up! Top stories this week: racial disparities in treatment for kids with type 1, new study looks at oral insulin for type 2, nanoparticles tested to prevent diabetes and why is there a Squishmallow toy being marketed as having T1D? That and a lot more.
Full transcript and links to sources below.
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Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!)
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Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast.
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In the news is brought to you by T1D Exchange! T1D Exchange is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving outcomes for the entire T1D population.
https://t1dexchange.org/stacey/
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Our top story, Black children with type 1 diabetes experience disparities in health outcomes compared with other racial and ethnic groups with similar neighborhood opportunity profiles. That’s according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open. This was a very big study – more than 70-thousand patient encounters under the age of 21 from 2009 to 2018. They looked at something called the Child Opportunity Index. This It combines data from neighborhood-level indicators, like good schools, parks and playgrounds, clear air and safe housing. They found that the probability of readmission within a year was significantly higher among Black children with a very low COI category versus Hispanic children and White children at the same COI category. These researchers say doctors and educators need to be aware and include interventions that target racial disparities.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/outcomes-worse-for-children-with-type-1-diabetes-who-are-black
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New research suggests the people of certain racial ethnic groups should be screened for diabetes at lower body mass index than white people. A recommendation that contradicts recent guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force. At a time when a lot of medicine is trying to rid itself of race-based tools this could be tricky.. but these researchers say that using a one-size-fits-all approach to screening, when diabetes is two to four times more prevalent and more deadly in Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, is likely to result in underdiagnosis of the disease, and widen health gaps.
https://www.statnews.com/2022/05/09/race-ethnicity-bmi-diabetes-screening/
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New partnership between JDRF, Yale University and a company called NexImmune. That company has something called Artificial Immune Modulation nanoparticles and the idea here is to if that could work with Teplizumab to delay or prevent type 1. Teplizumab is already being tested as a prevention method and is back in front of the FDA. NexImmune says it’s wider plan is to use the body’s own T-cells to generate a specific immune response to prevent not just diabetes but other auto immune conditions and even cancer.
https://www.jdrf.org/press-releases/neximmune-yale-and-jdrf-enter-into-600k-research-partnership-for-type-1-diabetes/
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Oramed Pharmaceuticals announced this week that it has enrolled 100% of the patients in the world’s first Phase 3 study of oral insulin
This is being looked at just for type 2 right now.
The primary endpoint of the study is to compare the efficacy of ORMD-0801 to placebo in improving glycemic control, with a secondary endpoint of assessing the change from baseline in fasting plasma glucose at 26 weeks. They hope to announce results in January of 2023.
https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2022/05/05/Oramed-hits-oral-insulin-clinical-trial-milestone
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New partnership between two diabetes heavy weights. The Diabetes Research Institute, DRI Foundation Canada (DRIFCAN) and Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) have announced a research partnership
The CEO of DRI says "Type 1 diabetes knows no borders or boundaries; nor should the research to find a cure. There’s a lot of research funded by these groups, included islet and stem cell transplantation.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/diabetes-research-institute-foundation-joins-193300513.html
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Right back to the news in a moment but first we’ve got a new sponsor. As I mentioned, The T1D Exchange Registry is an online research study, designed to harness the power of individuals with type 1 diabetes. It’s a research study conducted online over time, designed to foster innovation and improve the lives of people with T1D. Personal information remains confidential and participation is fully voluntary. Once enrolled, participants will complete annual surveys and have the opportunity to sign up for other studies on specific topics related to T1D. By sharing opinions, experiences and data, patients can help advance meaningful T1D treatment, care and policy Sign up at T1DExchange.org slash Stacey (that’s S-T-A-C-E-Y).
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Insulet’s CEO is stepping down.. Shacey Petrovic has been in the role since 2019 and says she’s stepping down June first for amily reasons. Petrovec will stay on as an advisor for the next year to aid in the transition and support the company’s launch of the Omnipod 5. She’ll replaced by Jim Hollingshead, who’s been on Insulet’s Board for the last three years. He’s been the president of ResMed – a company that focuses on advances in sleep medicine- for the last 12 years.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/insulet-swap-ceos-amid-omnipod-5-insulin-pump-roll-out
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I feel like I haven’t done a newscast in a few weeks without mentioning model Lila Moss. After being on the cover of UK Vogue and making headlines at the Met Gala, she’s now showing off her Libre and Omnipod In a new Fendi and Versace ad campaign
https://pagesix.com/2022/05/11/lila-moss-wears-diabetes-monitor-in-fendi-versace-ad-campaign/
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Got an update for you on T1D The Movie. We talked about this a few months ago – Star Trek actor Noah Averbach Katz is producing a short film with type 1 at the center. He started a kick starter campaign and got a wonderful response from the start trek community which, along with the diabetes community, fully funded the project. I got an update that he is starting filming this week. He also says if you backed the project at the level where you’d get a token of appreciation, they’re working on those too.. more to come.
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Interesting find on the toy front. I had never heard of Squishmallows but people say the stuffed toys are soothing while others say it’s just a scam and there’s nothing inherently special about the plush toys. Either way, one of the limited edition plushies is being marketed as having type 1 diabetes. There’s nothing on the toy itself to show that it might use diabetes technology – this is just listed in the toy description on line. I’m trying to find out the story behind this so letme know if you know atying!
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On this week’s long format episode, you’ll hear about the Mental Health Plus diabetes conference.. the organizers said every conference has one session on mental health – we really need more. So they did it. Love that! Next week, as I mentioned, Dexcom’s Chief Technical Officer on the G7, some interesting new info.. and I asked him all of your questions.
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That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.