DiabetesMine™ Launches First-Ever Video Product Review Site for and by People Affected by Diabetes
New DiabetesMine™ Test Kitchen intended to help people with diabetes be better health consumers.
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) April 28, 2014
DiabetesMine™, a leading informational and community website for people with diabetes, today announced the first-ever video product review hub created specifically by and for people whose lives are affected by diabetes.
Online product reviews have revolutionized how consumer products are discovered and purchase decisions are made -- yet despite the boom in health technologies and social media for chronic conditions, there is a surprising lack of resources for patients to post and explore user reviews of products aimed at their chronic disease care. This is certainly true for diabetes, a condition that affects an estimated 26 million Americans, costs the country $245 billion annually, and constitutes a billion-dollar market in over-the-counter supplies and medical devices alone.
Creating a program like this will, for the first time ever, highlight diabetes tools and supplies as consumer offerings.
The DiabetesMine Test Kitchen, found at http://www.diabetesmine.com/testkitchen and http://www.diabetesmine.com/product-reviews, invites people living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and parents of diabetic children to submit 3-5 minute candid video reviews of products designed to assist with diabetes care in the following categories:
- Software and mobile health apps
- Insulin delivery devices
- Glucose measuring devices
- Diabetes carrying cases and accessories
- Food items, including glucose products for treating low blood sugar
- Other diabetes-relevant fitness, food, and lifestyle products
The program will not review FDA-regulated drugs.
All videos will be shot in the reviewer’s kitchen, where so much of diabetes care – and life – takes place.
“We believe there is a strong need for patients to have access to an online, interactive hub where people affected by diabetes can create, publish, rate and explore reviews similar to those posted about consumer technology at a site like Cnet.com,” said Amy Tenderich, patient advocate and founder of DiabetesMine.com.
“People can learn from each other’s experiences with these targeted products, and discuss meaningful pro’s and con’s of innovation challenges.”
In addition to the peer support component, this new resource will allow empowered, engaged patients (known as ePatients) to call attention to their needs and wishes, and highlight the shortcomings of current health tools.
While some diabetes bloggers currently publish individual product reviews (DiabetesMine™ included), the patient community will benefit tremendously from a large-scale “crowdsourced” approach, where droves of people can gather and discuss how well these items may or may not meet their health needs.
"Want to know the truth about the products used in type 1 and type 2 diabetes? We think a good place to start is the candid, unscripted feedback from the patients themselves. That’s why we’re excited about the launch of the DiabetesMine Test Kitchen, which will allow patients to share their experiences, good and bad, with the products they’re using. That these reports will be done by video will make them easier for viewers to actually see and understand, and they will benefit other patients as well as health care providers. The videos will also be useful to the makers of the products themselves, who, as much as anyone, need to know the truth about their products,” said Kelly L. Close, editor in chief of diaTribe and Chair of The diaTribe Foundation.
“JDRF works hard to ensure that the voices of people directly affected by type 1 diabetes are heard, and we include their perspective in every aspect of our research and advocacy programs. We applaud the concept of product reviews by people directly connected to T1D like those being created and shared at the DiabetesMine Test Kitchen as another great opportunity to amplify their voices,” said JDRF Senior Manager of New Technology Development, Jiangfeng Fei, Ph.D.
Video reviews submitted to the DiabetesMine Test Kitchen will first be vetted and approved. Once published, the reviews will include check-mark ratings and will be searchable by product category, brand name, and keywords. Viewers will be encouraged to comment on and debate each video, both on the site and via social media buttons allowing easy sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Vendors will be welcome to enter the conversation and respond to comments, as long as they are sufficiently identified.
Vendors will also be encouraged to use the image of the DiabetesMine™ Test Kitchen’s check-mark logo when promoting a product that has been publicly reviewed.
About DiabetesMine.com
DiabetesMine.com is an information resource and community networking place for people affected by diabetes -- a gathering place to learn, share, laugh and sometimes vent. DiabetesMine™ is also a team of patient advocates, working to help improve the tools and care available to make life with diabetes better, through our DiabetesMine Innovation Project events and programs, and the newly formed WeAreNotWaiting.org movement.
DiabetesMine™ ranks in the World’s Top Blogs on Health and Medicine at Healthline.com — and was recently named the nation’s No. 1 diabetes influencer site by ShareCare.com.
For more information, please contact testkitchen @ diabetesmine.com or 650-302-4232.
DiabetesMine is a registered trademark of TnT Initiatives, LLC. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.