Changing the Paradigm of Diabetes Care: A Personal Journey

I had just hung up the phone with a retailer arguing over the wholesale price of a men’s pair of leather shoes for a company I had invested in only one year before. A lot had changed in that year.  The world was living through what in retrospect, was named the Great Recession.  No one was immune.  

But none of that prepared me for the most profound question of 2008. “I know if my blood sugars go low, I can go into a coma.  How do I know I will wake up at night if my blood sugars go low?”  Myla, who had recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in October, was always wise beyond their years, but that question left me speechless. I seem to recall fumbling through some answers about how your body is remarkable and will alert you when you go low, but I am sure Myla was not convinced as I wasn’t confident in my answer. Hypoglycemia unawareness is real, and we didn’t yet know if Myla was one of those rare people (thankfully Myla is not). 

Plato wrote The Republic, “Our need will be the real creator,” or as the proverb says, “Necessity is the motherhood of invention.” Yes, Myla had a need, but millions of people are in need.  While Myla has type 1 diabetes (your immune system mistakenly treats the beta cells in your pancreas that create insulin as foreign invaders and destroys them - thereby creating a lifetime of insulin dependence), the need extends to type 2 diabetes (your body does not use insulin properly—called insulin resistance).  All of this fueled my passion to make a difference and do my small part to help reshape diabetes care and make life with this condition easier. 

A Personal and Professional Mission

Eerily enough, my journey didn’t start with my child’s diagnosis. In fact, I had already spent three years in the diabetes space as part of the founding team of Welldoc only as a result of being asked to.  At Welldoc, we sought to harness the power of what was then new technology (our first randomized control trial was on a Nokia data-enabled phone to give you a sense of history) to make the biggest impact on the most amount of people by embedding a “doctor in your pocket” and extending the voice of your clinician to being by your side as you made diabetes management choices each and every day. We were the first FDA-cleared, reimbursable, and prescribable mobile app. Something that the American Diabetes Association dubbed “Mobile Prescription Therapy” at the time (the precursor to mHealth, digital health, digiceuticals, digital therapeutics, and hopefully one day, just healthcare).  

I then went on to co-found Bigfoot Biomedical, where, once again, we sought to simplify access to technology, bringing to market the first insulin-connected pen with clinical decision support. Both ventures emerged from a desire to push the boundaries of traditional diabetes management. 

These companies were steps along a path that was always about more than business; it was about creating practical solutions for real people.

Rethinking Diabetes Care: It’s Time for a Paradigm Shift

The current system for diabetes management often places the burden of care on individuals, their partners and loved ones.  We need to change the paradigm, moving from companies that build devices and ask people to meet them where they are rather than meeting diabetics where they are and want to be - a seamless experience that puts people—not their devices—at the center.
For almost 20 years, I have been trying to develop solutions that integrate easily into daily life, giving people the freedom to live without diabetes constantly being top of mind.

Reaching More People, Changing More Lives

It’s not enough to develop great technology—we must ensure it reaches the people who need it most. Diabetes doesn’t discriminate. It affects people from all walks of life, and we must ensure our solutions are accessible to everyone. 90%+ of people living with insulin-requiring diabetes take their insulin using an insulin pen.  For many reasons, including cost, complexity, and convenience, people living with insulin-requiring diabetes are unable or unwilling to wear technology on their bodies 24/7.  As a result, they are missing out on the benefits of the most advanced technologies.  

All of this has led me to create Luna with John and Sean. I have spent my professional career trying to reach as many people as possible with these solutions, breaking down the barriers that often prevent individuals from accessing the care they need. Luna is the culmination of this work—tackling the single largest unaddressed need in all of diabetes—nighttime glucose control for people living with insulin-requiring diabetes.  

As we can, we are excited to share more about what we are doing at Luna, and whether you are a person living with diabetes or have a friend/partner/loved one living with insulin-requiring diabetes, we hope you will join us on our journey.  Help us give back the gift of sleep to people living with insulin-requiring diabetes - Better Nights for Better Days®.