What's living with diabetes like for you? This is the question Dr. Bill Polonsky asked during his first day on the job at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The waiting room was full of patients who expressed gratitude for his curiosity. "Thank you," they said. "No one has ever asked me that question before." He continued asking this question for weeks, months and years with the same result. and states the obvious, "I shouldn't be the first person asking that question." On this episode we talk to Bill about the emotional impact of living with diabetes including issues like diabetes distress, the importance of empathy and trust between doctor and patient and the importance of making diabetes technology affordable for everyone.
Featured on this Episode:
Dr. William "Bill" Polonsky is President and Co-Founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, the world’s first organization wholly dedicated to studying and addressing the unmet psychological needs of people with diabetes. He is also Associate Clinical Professor in Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Polonsky received his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University and has served as Senior Psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Chairman of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators. A licensed clinical psychologist, certified diabetes care and educational specialist, and highly-cited research scientist (with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in the field of behavioral diabetes), he received the American Diabetes Association’s 2020 Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award and the American Diabetes Association’s 2014 Richard R. Rubin Award for distinguished contributions tobehavioral medicine and psychology.
Resources for this Episode:
Behavioral diabetes institute: https://behavioraldiabetes.org
