National Diabetes Week will take place between the 14th and 20th of June 2021. The theme this year, as outlined by Diabetes UK, is #DiabetesStories, so we thought we’d introduce you to Martin and Jo, two very committed and enthusiastic members of our Diabetes Community who recently agreed to share their experience of Diabetes with us as part of our own #DiabetesAndMe campaign.
Why is it important to talk about Diabetes?
Whilst 4.7 million people - in the UK alone - suffer from diabetes, there are a further 900,000 people with Diabetes who haven't been diagnosed and 17 million who are very likely to go on to develop full diabetes within 10 years. The scale of this disease is such that it is now considered a pandemic which should consequently be of interest to all of us.
As we will see over the coming week, there are several misconceptions around Diabetes which originate from a lack of awareness and information of this disease. One of our goals next week will therefore be to fight with facts and real life stories a series of 7 commons Diabetes myths that, we are sure, everybody has encountered at least once in their life.
In fact, you will be all invited to share your own experiences with us! Stay tuned!
Why are we so involved with Diabetes?
At Occuity we specialise in the research, design and production of non-contacting optical instruments for use in healthcare diagnostics and monitoring, including Diabetes.
In particular, we are in the process of developing a non-contact handheld device that is capable of screening for the AGE's that build up in the eye over time. Coupled with machine learning techniques, the readings from this device will aim to give a diagnosis of whether the subject is non-diabetic, pre-diabetic or diabetic.
Moreover, instead of relying on finger prick blood tests to provide blood glucose readings, at Occuity we are in the process of developing a non-contact handheld optical device to determine the blood glucose level by measuring subtle changes within the anterior chamber of the eye.
Diabetes is, thereby, an integral part of our mission to change the life of millions of people affected by this disease. Join our Diabetes Community here to help us reach this ambitious goal!
Let’s make together this world a better place for people affected by Diabetes!
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