Familiar Faces, New Places – and Judge For Yourself

I love that little thrill I get when I recognize a face from the online community in a new or different place.

Picture of Scott HanselmanI got that little thrill when I saw Scott Hanselman grinning back at me from the latest e-mail newsletter from the ADA. I love Scott.  He’s a pretty smart dude. He also gave us “The Airplane Analogy“, which is a favorite of mine.  Plus, with a name like “Scott”, what’s not to love?

He’s funny too.  From the newsletter – “They say diabetics die of diabetes. As a well-controlled type 1 diabetic on a pump, my goal is to live long and eventually get hit by an ice cream truck.”

This e-mail update from the ADA was promoting the “Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes” and it got me thinking about the last couple of interactions I have had with the ADA.

For as long as I can remember I have held a belief that the ADA was all about type 2 diabetes and that they have nothing useful to offer me as a person living with type 1 diabetes.

My recent Tour de Cure ride was an incredible experience for me, especially the Red Rider aspect of the whole weekend.  I don’t think the ride would have been as powerful for me if it hadn’t been for the Red Riders, which was started by someone with type 1 diabetes for people with diabetes.  It was a very powerful and emotional experience for me, and I gained a lot from it.

My next experience with them revolves around the last Roche summit.  The ADA brought in a panel of big hitters to listen to us tell them how they are not serving us.  They apologized, they listened, they asked questions.  We’ll see where it goes from here.

My point with these experiences is that my opinion of the ADA is changing.  I encourage you to not judge them by stories you hear, but rather use your personal experience.  If you have a bad experience with them, share your feedback, with them and with us.

In today’s world of blogging and tweeting and facebook, companies can’t afford bad experiences and are (hopefully) quick to engage and fix bad situations.  If we want these places to help us, we need to share our thoughts with them.  They need to listen to the people they are trying to support.

We need to work together.

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Scott K. Johnson

Patient voice, speaker, writer, and advocate. Living life with diabetes and telling my story. All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of my employer.

Diagnosed in April of 1980, I recognize the incredible mental struggle of living with diabetes. Read more…