Each year since 2015, Abbott have run an event for bloggers
and influencers (and me!) bringing together representatives from all over
Europe. This year there were over forty representatives
from fifteen European countries, including eight people from the UK. The programme was split over Friday evening
and Saturday morning with a variety of speakers and discussion sessions. The sessions were run on the Remo platform (https://remo.co/), an application I didn’t know of
previously, but certainly something that has great potential. I’ll go through its functionality at the end
of my review.
At this point I need to stress that I haven’t been asked to
blog about this event and I have not received anything from Abbott either as an
incentive to attend or as a reward for doing so.
The overall theme of the conference was Life-Changing Moments. The sessions started with introductions, although this was
just each country group being virtually invited to the stage so that everyone
could see who was attending (bit awkward!). It was like Eurovision; I half expected us to
receive nul points. Not everybody made it to the sessions on
time, possibly as a result of technical or scheduling difficulties. The session started at 16:00 UK time.
There were three sessions on Friday evening starting with Alizée
Agier, a World Karate Champion and 2021 Olympian, talking about the challenges presented
by Covid-19 and dealing with Type 1 as an elite athlete.
Alizee Agier - World Karate Champion
After Alizée there was a short session from Fiona Lloyd of
Abbott speaking about how Abbott were investing in mental health and diabetes
across Europe. She introduced Vanessa
Haydock – the diabetes health coach.
Vanessa Haydock - the Diabetes Health Coach
She had a several recommendations for people to deal with diabetes
·
Acknowledge the positive impact of peer support
·
Learn to accept you condition
·
Learn from mistakes
·
Learn not to be ashamed of your condition
(she uses the hashtag #showoffyoursensor
·
Continually strive to prove others wrong and that anything is possible.
She still has bad days and her mental health isn’t always
perfect. Health anxiety is there
sometimes, but Libre helps with this.
She endlessly focuses on the positives.
Diabetes has given her a purpose in life, predominantly to help others
and spread the word.
She concluded with the statement “Diabetes, don’t let it own
you”, which seems an apt mantra to live by.
The final session of the evening was signposted as the Abbott Update.
Abbott Technology Update
This made a few of us
optimistic that there may be significant news that may affect us and the
diabetes community. Sadly, we were to be
disappointed. There was no update on
Libre 2 availability or any other significant developments. It transpired that the session would be
almost entirely about the recently-announced Libre Sense system. Whilst I am sure this is interesting to some,
I felt that this was of minimal interest to me.
The session was led by Ismene Grohman from the New Analyte Ventures team at Abbott – obviously Abbott are looking for new sensing opportunities across a range of areas.
Libre Sense is a new system coming to market this year across Europe, including the UK, aimed at blood glucose monitoring for athletes. It is not indicated for diabetes use and is constrained to levels between 55mg/dl to 200 mg/dl. However, with a partner app it live updates an app every minute. Cost will be €65 a month via a subscription model or €80 for a single sensor without further obligation. VAT may well be payable on top of this cost.
This puts the cost in
Dexcom territory. I suspect that part of
the reason for the launch to this market are the minimal regulatory requirements. I hope that the technology employed in Libre
Sense finds its way into future iterations of diabetes Libre. I just wish they hadn’t used Libre in the
name, as I feel it is going to cause significant confusion (not to mention
wasted money) amongst the diabetes community.
Following the final session of the evening, there was a
chance to have a chat with others that were attending, although most left
quickly after the session.
Day 2
Saturday started at 07:45 with a “light exercise session” by Dr Hazel Wallace – a wellness coach and qualified doctor. I’d like to tell you all about the session, but sadly I didn’t attend, preferring to start with the main sessions at 09:00. Following a short conversation with a couple of delegates the main Saturday session commenced.
Group Discussion - the Impact of Covid-19
This session was focused on the experiences
of delegates during the Covid crisis.
The session was facilitated by Shelina Begum, former editor of the
Manchester Evening News. The Remo
platform allowed delegates to be split into tables. Delegates were mixed between different tables
so that there were a variety of countries represented at each one. There was then a fifteen minute discussion at
each table about one of the following topics: Food, Sleep, Sports and Social
Life. At the end of the fifteen minutes,
representatives of each table were brought up to the speaking platform and had
a chat with Shalina about the group discussions.
My group were allocated Sleep – there were a few insights,
although most people on the table suggested that their sleep hadn’t been
affected by Covid. One delegate
explained how early in the crisis she was very anxious about the implications
of Covid. She dealt with this by
focusing on the areas that she could control and getting more information. She also limited her social media to pre-9pm
and ensured evening exercise. Others
concluded that diabetes certainly caused general sleep issues, but that Covid
itself hadn’t adversely affected it. One
delegate even highlighted that she was a new Mum and spoke of the challenges of
sleep deprivation due to both diabetes and the new baby. There were different levels of sleep
requirement amongst the group with the lowest requirement being around half of
the greatest.
The Sports table highlighted how a number of them had been
trying to get hold of sports equipment.
Due to Covid, this had become difficult with weights and kettlebells
being difficult to source in a number of countries. The lack of team sports was also highlighted
as difficult.
The Food table spoke about how they felt that for the most
part, food had been positively influenced by Covid. Yes, there were difficulties sourcing certain
items, and not being able to go out for food was annoying, however they found
new suppliers and the preparation of food became an event. They found new suppliers and ate food that
they may not have done previously. A
delegate from Paris even commented that due to shortages there, she was sourcing
some of her provisions from Poland!
The final table spoke about Social Life. They highlighted that in the UK especially
the lines between what’s allowed and what is not have become increasingly
blurred. People seemed to be making
their own rules whilst for the most part remaining within the spirit of the
guidance. It was clear that mental
health was being adversely affected by the lack of physical contact. Virtual meetings became the norm during the
strong lockdown, but people have now tired of these and far fewer are
happening. It was a great relief to some
to be able to once more meet up with people in person.
Lionel Reichardt - The Pharma Geek
He first highlighted that this is the first pandemic of the
digital age and the first pandemic that mankind can stop. He also cited that this pandemic has been an
amazing accelerator for the digital transformation of the world. I think few could argue with this sentiment.
He added that there are three fights with data to fight
three issues
·
The fight against the pandemic and the virus
·
The fight against the disease
·
The fight against the infodemic
He explained that there were three challenges facing healthcare:
·
Make visible the invisible
·
Make people connected by contactless
·
Increase capabilities
He went on to talk about the rise of telehealth. In France, pre-Covid, just 0.1% of
interactions between HCPs and patients were virtual. In April 2020, there were 1.5 million
interactions a week equating to 25%-30% of all interactions. 80% of HCPs had engaged in virtual
consultations.
He also explained that Digital Therapeutics (DTX) are on the
rise.
There are various innovations including connected devices at
the point of care, like the Oura ring (https://ouraring.com/)
and getting data from a video feed (https://www.binah.ai/)
Health innovation funding has tripled since 2015 and there’s
been a sharp rise in the second half of 2020.
The biggest ever merger in the sector happened in August 2020 between
Teladoc and Livongo creating an organisation valued in excess of $37bn (https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/features/teladoc-livongo-merger-analysis/).
He cited the example of Omada Health. This is a programme to help those with Type 2
to transform their lives. Its tagline is
“Digital health made human”.
Participants get a connected scale and activity tracker. They are allocated to groups of twelve people
supported by a coach. This combines the
best aspects of peer support, expertise and connected devices to make
life-changing outcomes.
He explained that health access inequalities do exist, but a
significant challenge is that medical knowledge is increasing rapidly. At the turn of the nineteenth century,
medical knowledge was doubling every eight years. At the current time, this knowledge is
thought to double every 73 days. Cost of
technology is certainly a factor but it is improving all the time, especially the
technology contained in wearable tech.
He concluded with a quote Jean Monnet, which seems to sum-up
the current situation nicely:
This final session was certainly the highlight of the
conference and I could have discussed this and listened to this engaging
speaker for far longer.
There followed a more informal session without formal
facilitation when those that had time to remain chatted around what they had
heard. I discussed my current ‘pet
project’ of smart insulin pens and access to appropriate resources that those
that may not far along their journey with diabetes. It was good to hear empathy for this from
other delegates in other countries. I
strongly feel that a focus on cutting-edge tech is great – but those that aren’t
at that frontier must not be forgotten and arguably the biggest impact can be
had by engaging with the group that are not yet tech users for their diabetes.
Clearly a lot of work behind the scenes had been conducted
by Abbott. The conference ran smoothly
and it was great to link up with so many people from across Europe to discuss
topics pertinent to all of us.
Remo Conferencing
Remo was the platform where the conference was held. It was really impressive in most aspects and
could be something worth considering for future conferences should the pricing
not be prohibitive. Here is an image
from a different conference that demonstrates the Remo interface.
There were a number of tables each with names of European Cities. When joining the conference you can see who is at each table and choose to join any of the tables. Double-clicking on the table takes you there and as soon as you virtually sit down, you can hear the conversation happening there and you can activate your microphone and camera to fully interact with the people at that table. The host can set timers that are displayed on screen showing how long the discussion should last. Once the timer is out then the screen changes and the host of that session has control, much like a Zoom session. If they choose, they can add other people to the speaker session and they appear on the speaker screen. You can raise your hand and there is live chat with similar functionality like Zoom. The speaker can share their screen, which results in both the speaker and their screen being visible. You can choose to just view the speaker if desired. Some of the transitions between speakers were a little slow, but the platform certainly looked as if it could be ideal for large groups and was great for networking.
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