Lutz Heinemann, PhD
CEO,
Science Consulting in Diabetes GmbH
Featured in the Session: ADA Diabetes Care Symposium: The Oscillation of Diabetes and the Environment
When
Sunday, June 7
at 1:30 p.m. CT
Where
245 (Level 2)
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
What is your presentation about?
Diabetes devices help people with diabetes a lot to handle their diabetes therapy in daily life; however, their usage, which increases year by year, also generates a lot of waste. People with diabetes are annoyed by all the waste they generate in association with their therapy. Besides all the electronic waste and batteries, the main issue is plastic waste. By employing eco-design during the development process of new devices, several issues can be reduced or avoided. In addition, recycling of the respective material can be supported when such aspects are considered early on.
How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
This presentation aims to motivate manufacturers in taking such aspects into account; several regulatory constraints should be adjusted accordingly. In addition, we should select diabetes devices by acknowledging those that take environmental aspects into account.
How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
I have a long-standing interest in diabetes technology. For me, this has evolved into one of the major pillars of diabetes therapy. This is mainly because adequate usage of diabetes devices helps patients with diabetes to optimize their therapy a lot. However, when you have a lot of light, you also have shadows. When patients collect the waste their therapy generated, it is impressive to see how many bags are filled within a couple of days. Due to the fact that patients with diabetes are more sensitive to heat in comparison to healthy subjects, their therapy should not generate more waste, etc., which further supports climate change. In view of the ever-growing number of patients with diabetes, I see the strong need to change the way diabetes devices are designed, manufactured, used, and discharged.