Why Detechnified?

One of the mixed advantages of spending over a decade working on an abstracts journal of interest to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its counterparts (such as the European Space Agency) is exposure to highly technical information across a wide range of disciplines -- ranging from aircraft and spacecraft design to the health of the pilots and astronauts who fly them -- and the ability to compress the information down to a one-paragraph abstract and six key phrases by which that paragraph could be recalled. Another is the ability to search for almost anything, and come up with an answer... somewhere.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol in 2002, I found myself in the information drought that too often accompanies these diagnoses: a handful of prescriptions, a couple of self-contradictory diet sheets, and "have a nice life". I had to apply the skills I learned on the job to find out how best deal with the medical hand I'd been dealt. I learned of something called "Syndrome X", or "Metabolic Syndrome" -- a new diagnostic label which was unknown to my medical team. I learned a lot more about diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, and the methods of treating them. I would (and still do) routinely hand my doctor printouts of the research I've been reading, and if they apply to my own conditions, we'll discuss them.

Today, there are a number of online communities to support people with diabetes; I'm a member of several of them. Many have places to post information about new advances in medical research. If I post the title and link to an original article published at Nature, The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine or BioMed Central, I meet with the equivalent of blank stares: most of us, no matter how interested we are in the medical issues and treatments for diabetes, can't easily understand writing that is aimed at doctors, and at other medical researchers.

There are also a number of health-oriented newswires which publish press releases and synopses of current research. What seems to be missing are an evaluation of both the immediate and long-term importance of the research, and a quick way to tie the synopsis to the original publication so an interested reader can pursue the issue further.

This is what I hope to address -- to make the technical understandable, to put it into context, and to leave a clear path for someone to research further -- to not have to take my understanding at face value. I hope this will help bring greater understanding to people with diabetes, and open up the dialog between us and our medical care teams.