Welcome to another Thriveabetes interview. Today I had a chance to catch up with Kate (Katarzyna) Gajewska. Kate was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 16 months old over 30 years ago.
Originally from Poland, Kate had worked for many years as a diabetes educator, psychoeducator and insulin pump certified trainer in one of the biggest paediaric diabetes centres in Warsaw, Poland before she moved to Ireland.
Insulin Pump Uptake in Ireland Research
When Kate came to Ireland because of her husband's job and was so happy to discover that in Ireland all of your diabetes medication and supplies are free. As a long time insulin pumper, approximately 20 years, she had to buy all of her supplies in Poland and had decided not to use a CGM device because it was so expensive in Poland. However, she was really surprised to hear that not a huge number of people with diabetes were using insulin pumps and this prompted her to undertake her PhD looking at the access to insulin pump therapy in Ireland. She submitted her PhD thesis a couple of weeks ago and in the last couple of months has had some of her findings published. In her free time she likes to run, sail, dive and travel and spend time with her 3 year old daughter, her husband and two pets.
Kate’s work has been so important to the Irish diabetes community because we now have a more informed estimate of how many people in Ireland have type 1 diabetes and through knowing where uptakes of Diabetes technology is so low we have identified why and can start to address those issues.
Kate’s interview is so informative and it was also so nice to say “Hello” to 3 year old Hannah who joined us towards the end of our interview and provided the loveliest soundtrack #WorkingMum
If you are someone who is looking into getting an insulin pump we have lots of information about how to start that conversation with your diabetes team here.
Published Research:
Follow Kate on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kate_gajewska
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-gajewska-b0a484149/
Key Findings of Research
In 2016, the total number of people with type 1 diabetes was 20,081.
2,591 were children with type 1 diabetes under the age of 18 years
17,053 were adults with type 1 diabetes aged over 18 years
Incidence of type 1 diabetes is as common in adults as children which correlates with the UK’s Biobank 2017 findings
Insulin Pump Update in Type 1 Diabetes in Ireland is 10%
Insulin pump update in children with type 1 diabetes 35%
Insulin pump uptake in adults with type 1 diabetes 7%
47 diabetes clinics participated in this study: approximately 33 public clinics and 14 private clinics.
15 clinics did not provide insulin pump support at all
11 clinics offered support for people already on insulin pumps but did not provide training for new pumps starts.
21 clinics did provide full insulin pump therapy (support and new pumps starts) however uptake still only averaged 12% in those clinics.