The Focus On Technology Children With Diabetes Conference was held on February 25-26th, 2012, in West Conshohocken, PA and was the 53rd Children With Diabetes Conference.
The Saturday morning keynote address, CGMS and New Technology, was given by Dr. Henry Anhalt, Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of the Artificial Pancreas Program for Animas.
Other lectures included Advanced Pumping Concepts by Rick Philbin, Managing Technology in School by Crystal Jackson, Making Sense of Sensor Data by Gary Scheiner, Managing Diabetes Stress and Burnout by Korey Hood, Infusion Sets and Sensors by Natalie Bellini and other topics.
The closing speech was by Tom Karlya, Vice President of the Diabetes Research Foundation, known as the Diabetes Dad, whose mantra is ‘Don’t do nothing!’.
The children had their own faculty that led them through arts and crafts, swimming in the hotel pool, scavenger hunts, exercise, carb counting in the real world and other discussions.
Exhibitors and sponsors included the JDRF, MyCareConnect, TrialNet, Animas, Sanofi-Avenits, Novo Nordisk, OneTouch and Accu-Chek.
Below are some tips and tricks of the trade from the conference:
Did you know that 2 inches of tubing holds about 1 unit of insulin? That you can put a 13 mm angled set in half way for kids and it will still work? That a 9 mm infusion set will stay in better than a 6 mm one? Or that after 48 hours with one infusion set your total daily insulin dose increases and blood glucose levels will increase? Or to aim for a blood sugar level of 150 before exercise? Or that chocolate milk can prevent lows after exercise?
Did you know that Mickey Mouse has a friend named Coco with Type 1 diabetes?
Or that the highest incidence of Type I diabetes is now among children age 5 or younger?
More information on Children With Diabetes can be obtained on their website.
The 54th Children With Diabetes conference will be the Friends for Life Conference in Orlando, Florida, July 3 – 8, 2012 at the Marriott World Center.
As the Diabetes Dad proclaimed at the conference…
“Someday we will go to the Children Without Diabetes conference!”
“It will be at Disney!” chimed in CWD Founder and President Jeff Hitchcock.
