Comment by Marston A on June 28, 2007 at 7:06am

Very good point Bernard, dugg.

Comment by Allison Blass on June 28, 2007 at 7:50am

It seemed to me that most of the people on the council were basic doctor-type people from major hospitals or health organizations that weren't necessarily affiliated with a particular kind of disease. A couple were related to AIDS, but the majority aren't. I'm sure at least one of these organizations has an interest in diabetes, if not most. I would have to research the organizations though - have you done that?

Comment by Bernard on June 28, 2007 at 1:00pm

Allison

I was keying off the fact that two of the organizations seemed to have a focus on cancer research. Now that's important stuff, but so is diabetes. I'd like to have seen someone who is familiar with the issues of diabetes and diabetes care.

The costs of diabetes are SO HIGH, that I can't help feeling there would be a huge benefit if you funneled large research dollars at that for a while. Look what happened to AIDS when it got a lot of attention. I think the same is true for some types of cancer.

The potential for savings is huge, but the actual federal dollars spent on diabetes seems to be going down.

Comment by Allison Blass on June 29, 2007 at 6:54am

I agree, and my point was that all the other organizations are probably not going to forget about diabetes. Just because two out of the dozen focus on cancer doesn't mean the other 10 are going to ignore diabetes in favor of other diseases. They are doctors from universities and medical organizations, so I'm just wondering what priorities they have. I agree it would be nice to have someone completely diabetes focused, but I'm not going to get too upset until I see where this is going.

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