Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics

Your Name
Amy Tenderich

Email
amy@diabetesmine.com

Name of Blog
www.diabetesmine.com

Website
http://www.diabetesmine.com

Description of Blog
A gold mine of straight talk and encouragement for people living with diabetes.

Describe yourself
Journalist, author, mother of three. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in May 2003. Now running the country’s best-read diabetes blog. Ain’t life funny?

Favorite Tags
diabetes, insulin, diabetic, blood sugar, medical devices

Why do you blog?
After diagnosis, I felt terribly alone and overwhelmed. The Internet then offered nothing but medical documentation and “bad-news” headlines. Where were the patients? Nobody seemed to be reporting from the heart on what it’s really like to live with this volatile disease. So I set out to create the diabetes site that I myself was looking for as a patient. It’s helped me turn my diabetes into something positive - and help others, too.

Why should readers read your blog?
They say I speak creatively and from the heart — to people with diabetes and their family, friends, and community — on topics ranging from inside looks at diabetes research and breaking news to daily life with diabetes to uncovering the diabetics’ deepest hopes and fears. Readers say they always learn a little, laugh a little at DiabetesMine.com.

Favorite Posts:

Excerpts from the Dr. Suess “Fun with Diabetes” Book

March 2 was Dr. Suess’ birthday. In memoriam, I’m feeling silly today:

Lancets! Test strips! Testing now! I can, you can, we know how.

Look! See! Blood drops, one and two and three. Why won’t this meter beep for me?

Numbers now. Number’s high! 182 – my, oh my!

Out with the insulin, out with the needle. Out with the afternoon snack-n-feedle.

Corrections, ouch. Corrections ooch. Injections 10x/day hurt my hooch.

Up, up, up and down the stairs — Now I’m taking stairs in pairs.

Down with the glucose readings! Down, down, down! I’ll have the best numbers in any town.

Funny, now I cannot think… Think what I thunk and my heart begins to sink.

Oops! Up with the sugar level — up, up, up! Glucose tablets, gummi drops, and orange juice in a big, BIG cup.

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Amy’s Tour of Health Plans, aka Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Slo-Mo

If I learned anything since my diagnosis, it’s that American health plans are pretty much all the same if you don’t have any special needs. That is, we bounced around a fair bit between various HMOs and PPOs and POS’s over the years. Some had higher co-pays, others had higher deductibles. It didn’t make that much difference, and even though I have three kids, I never looked into it very carefully.

Then I got diabetes. I had to see an endocrinologist regularly. I had to see a diabetes educator and a nutritionist regularly. Since the diabetes affects everything, I had to see an ophthalmologist, allergist, gynecologist, podiatrist, and sometimes orthopedic surgeon. My life became a nightmare of pre-authorizations and referrals. Who was in my network? How much would I have to pay if they weren’t? Why does my local “Medical Group” have the right to restrict me from seeing the world-class diabetes specialists at my local university?

What I found out is summarized below. Note that this highly condensed info took me a good half-year to work out, and with every agency sending me off in another direction, getting there was a bit like taking Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in very slow motion. (The details of your plan options may differ, of course!) And note that just as I’ve figured this all out, my husband’s company is CHANGING PLANS AGAIN!! Am I covered for Exploding Head?! Anyway, here goes:

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Reader Review

Diabetes Mine is probably the best written and almost certainly the most-read blog by a person with Type 1 diabetes. Amy touches on almost every conceivable issue relevant to how to manage and live with diabetes, and she does it with clarity, humor and a strong opinionated style. Particularly important is her assessment of new devices and technologies and how well they work in practice. Plus she’s been very aggressive in demanding better technology for diabetics–even asking Steve Jobs to help!

Matthew Holt

Matthew Holt Consulting
Research, forecasting & strategy
for the health care marketplace

Editor’s Comment

I was thrilled for Amy to join our effort here. She lends her high exposure and obvious credibility to the code of Ethics. Her site is clearly the kind of site that needs to be out there on the web - giving patients good solid information in a world where bad information is easier to find than good. Her efforts are a huge bonus to us, but also to the blogging community and diabetics everywhere.