About me…
I’m currently a 4th year in the MD/MBA program at Yale. And before ask, no, I’m probably not going into endocrinology. I AM, however, really interested in medical devices (obviously) and am exploring that as a career opportunity while in business school.
I’m 24 years old, and have a wonderful and supporting family and girlfriend. I grew up in Westport, CT, and am now living in New Haven. I was diagnosed a year and a half ago, when I was 23 years old. Interestingly enough, this was during my 2nd year of med school, and we were studying endocrinology. We had a lecture on “The Presenting Signs of Diabetes,” and I thought to myself, in typical hypochondriac-med student style, “Oh $%*$#, that’s ME!” Of course, unlike most med student panic attacks, I was right on this one.
After 6 months of injections, I started on the Omnipod system a year ago, and love it. I’m yearning for the day Navicare and Insulet get their act together and put a CGM in the pod.
I’m extremely excited about this site. I hope to use it as a great resource for getting advice, sharing stories, and getting to know some of the great people out there who are going through the same stuff I am. I stumbled on it by way of Kerri’s SixUntilMe blog, and am also an avid reader of Amy’s DiabetesMine. I am absolutely enamored with all the great diabetes resources that have sprung up in the blogosphere and the rest of the 'net.
Not sure who you’re endo is, but I met Dr. Robert Sherwin who heads the JDRF-Yale Center for Hypoglycemia a few years ago and he was great, so if you’re ever shopping around for a new doctor (and over 31 years, I’ve learned that people should … too many stay with the same doc out of inertia even if they could benefit by seeing someone else). I hope in your pursuit of a career opportunity in medical devices that you will consider communities like this one (TuDiabetes) as resources to seek input on concepts ranging from products to marketing of products.
I work in the consulting field, but I continue to be utterly amazed at how antiquated the medical supply industry (pharma, medical equipment, home diagnostics, etc.) remains very much a supply-driven business – “you can have any color you like, as long as its black” where the patient with diabetes is too often an afterthought (if their thoughts are even considered) in both product development as well as marketing. I know someone who works for an ad agency here in NYC who told me that they often will use market research to support their ad concept, not to actually identify what patients need, want, or even care about – clearly that isn’t genuine research, but I understand that their goal is to book more business from their client, not to actually sell products. Clearly, this is an industry that could use a good dosage of reality in the way it approaches business!
Anyway, I hope you’ll look to us in your future business ventures. I believe that communities like this one, although small relative to the 14+ million uncontrolled type 2 market who most “lazy marketers” see as the logical target market for their clients products, remains a critically important segment from a revenue standpoint, and many of them are here now!
I could go on and on, but you may wish to catch my blog posting on this subject at Scott's Web Log: Advertising Health Care Products
Regards,
Scott