Factors Associated with Disparities in Access to Diabetes Management Technologies

Jamie K.

Marin Academy Research Collaborative Program

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-kurtzig/

Intro to My Project

My name is Jamie, and I am a senior at Marin Academy. The objective of my study is to examine access to diabetes management technologies in California. I am working with Systems Utilization Research For (SURF) Stanford Medicine to investigate socioeconomic factors and healthcare provider specialties associated with diabetes technology use.

We are collecting and analyzing survey responses from approximately 200 people with diabetes (or who have a loved one with diabetes) who reflect California’s diversity. This research will contribute to scientific knowledge about disparities in access to diabetes technology. We hope that our findings will decrease these disparities by arming providers and researchers with knowledge about various diabetes technology access across patient groups. Our survey can provide insight into which populations use each diabetes technology type and brand, which populations receive recommendations for diabetes technologies, why they receive these recommendations, and from whom.

By analyzing participant demographics, such as self-identified race, educational status, and primary language, we intend to discover which of these factors are most associated with diabetes technology use. This information will allow researchers to devote more resources to getting various patient populations the technologies they need.

Having first-hand experience with the wonders of these technologies, I have made it my mission to get these technologies to as many people as I can. The first step in doing so is figuring out why these technologies are so inaccessible, which our research project intends to do. We deliberately based our research project on the gaps in current scientific literature about access to diabetes management technologies so that policy makers could understand these disparities, and consequently, take action to combat this problem. We hope that our findings will decrease these disparities by arming policymakers, providers, and researchers with knowledge about various diabetes technology access across patient groups.

Here is some helpful background information:

Diabetes is a group of conditions where there is too much sugar in the blood. These elevated blood sugar levels can be caused by autoreactive T-cells’ destruction of insulin-producing islet beta cells, insulin resistance, or the insufficient production of insulin. There is no cure for diabetes, but insulin doses can help manage this condition.
There are currently several technologies that help people with diabetes, including insulin pumps that deliver precise amounts of insulin, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) that provide continuous blood sugar data, and hybrid closed-loop systems that modulate basal insulin from a predictive learning algorithm
Preference and diabetes technology education are not significant barriers to diabetes technology uptake, but preference is the main reason for diabetes technology discontinuation.
Educated white people with private insurance, high household income, low A1Cs, and type 1 diabetes are the most likely to use diabetes technology.
Diabetes technology improves health outcomes, but expense (including Medicaid coverage) and preference prevent low-income minorities from getting the care they need.

Progress So Far

I will be listed as the first author on the research paper (target submission is spring 2022), supervised by SURF’s Dr. David Scheinker. I conducted a literature review on access to diabetes management technologies to identify gaps in existing literature. I narrowed down the project to focus on the role healthcare providers have on diabetes technology access. I then created a survey, consent form, and assent form to efficiently target these gaps in information. I secured funding for Facebook advertisements and participant incentives. I wrote a project proposal, and we received a $5K grant from JDRF (formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), the largest type 1 diabetes organization in the world. I also created Facebook advertisements and received certificates for completing the Stanford Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative “Human Subjects Research Protections” and “IRB Administration” courses. I submitted the research protocol to Stanford’s IRB. After two rounds of feedback, the IRB approved our research. We recently released the survey. I have written the introduction and methods sections of the research paper. I also learned R and created figures and data tables with mock-up data that we will use in the final paper. I have also been staying updated on literature surrounding technology for diabetes management, as well as posting summaries of these papers on SURF’s Twitter page.

Report abuse