The EASD (European Association for the Study of Diabetes) congress is a yearly get together of health care professionals, researchers, businesses and members of the diabetes online community. Research results are presented, there’s time to catch up with acquaintances from around the world and med tech companies organize meetings for members of the diabetes online community. The Kaleido event was hosted by blogger Jen Grieves, who wrote a blog post on the get together for the Kaleido website.
“I first encountered the Kaleido team back in 2015, when we met in a central London cafe on a rather dark autumnal evening. Contrary to the gloomy weather outside, they placed in front of me a very bright, very colourful, very slick-looking and very new insulin pump. As we chatted about how the Kaleido came to be, it was clear that this pump felt like it could be something quite different.
The fact that we were just having a casual natter in the corner of a cafe already said something to me. As a person who’s lived with type 1 diabetes for 22 years, the prospect of new devices and more choice when it comes to managing this tricky condition are always gratefully received, but attempts to penetrate the corporate walls aren’t always easy, which can sometimes be a barrier to the honest, candid conversations that need to happen around what it’s really like to live with and manage type 1 diabetes. But it’s understandable, given how very tightly the medical device industry is – and should be – regulated.”