August 2, 2011

I Do Have to Believe AACE Is Not PR Motivated

Yes, I do believe AACE is not motivated in public relations and now I am getting concerned. Back on April 29, 2011 we were told by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) George Grunberger, MD, national board director through a Medscape article that AACE and Takeda Pharmaceuticals were putting up a new website to assist people with type 2 diabetes.

According to Dr. Grunberger, “The idea of the new Web site is not to provide new patient information about diabetes, but to direct patients to educational resources on the Web that provide credible information about the disease. Inaccurate or incomplete information can lead to unnecessary stress or confusion for people living with type 2 diabetes. We need to make it easier for healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers to access reliable sources of information, which can form a foundation for treatment and care decisions." Read my blog about this here.

In this blog on July 1, I asked if it was all hype. Now it is the first of August and I still have seen no results. This time I am doing my homework as I had been wondering if the article was printed with no backup information. On that I would be wrong as on the Takeda Pharmaceuticals website they do have a news release dated March 22, 2011 to confirm at least this much. You may read this for yourself. I have been contacting people to find out what is planned and when.

So rather than just vent, I will have to say that in an answer from AACE and Takeda, I have been told that it is still coming, just that it was taking longer than anticipated. Both responders are confident in their reply. Apparently the experts can't agree and vetting is taking longer than anticipated (my thoughts).

Am I upset, somewhat, if it had been an appointment with a doctor and I missed it, I would have been sent a letter telling me how valuable their time was and to reschedule. What I get upset about is when a doctor(s) or an association misses something, they don't feel an explanation is in order. Whether I speak only for myself, or if others agree, we should have been told that there was an unforeseen delay and our patience is appreciated. Even if they would have said that it would be longer than anticipated, at least then I would not be quite so upset, and avoided venting my feelings about how doctors do more to destroy doctor/patient relationships than patients will ever do.

I am still concerned about the delay and why one hand does not know what the other hand is doing and why when something is released that it will happen in June, the public relations people did not inform us that there would be a delay. I still wonder which sites will obtain the approval of those doing the vetting of sites. With the delay, I do have to wonder again if some of the sites selected will allow for individualized selection of treatment options or whether it will be a one size fits all approach. The latter will kill it before it even gets going!

I will continue to watch for the site's appearance and what websites make the initial selection criteria. This will be an indicator of what to expect and the stand of the AACE about the approved websites.

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