diaTribe #20 – a special reunion issue and a time for reflection.

SO HERE IT IS! Issue #20 of diaTribe. Three years ago, we said that we hope it's just the beginning, and indeed it was. We've come a long way from our eight pages every other month - this issue tops out at 28 pages, our largest ever.

As you know, here at Close Concerns, we remain passionate about diabetes - understanding it and writing about it, not to mention managing it. (Many of us have diabetes, some since we were children.)

We promised with our first issue to bring you an independent, advertising-free, e-newsletter for everyone eager to learn about the latest advances in diabetes management, focusing on research and product news. We pledged to be your inside track on diabetes. We pledged to bring you insights from leaders in the field.

From what you've told us, diaTribe has had a real impact on many lives. Last year, we asked for feedback and heard from nearly 1,000 readers. You told us the following:

• 83% said diaTribe helped you understand diabetes better;

• 75% said diaTribe helped you be better informed in conversations with your doctor or educator;

• 70% said diaTribe helped improve your diabetes management;

• 47% even said diaTribe helped improve your A1c!

We appreciate your trust in us. As a patient-focused newsletter, diaTribe represented a new chapter for Close Concerns, which was founded eight years ago. Many of you already knew that we wrote newsletters on diabetes and obesity for those developing and marketing products - our work covers new research, the latest science, and all the news on the new product front - the "here and now" and the "coming soon" and the ideas that are just developing but are intriguing key scientists and researchers, and of course, patients. Five of us still travel all over the world on dozens of trips annually seeking the timeliest information. Our access to America's (and now the globe's) leading diabetes researchers and clinicians is stronger than ever, and we still have what we think is unmatched expertise in the business of this disease. And, for the last three years, we've tried to share this information with the people who needed it the most: the patients! We've done that with diaTribe, and 20 issues later, we're proud of what we've accomplished and believe we have much more to contribute.

Issue #20 also marks a special reunion - this issue includes contributions from every former managing editor of diaTribe: Erin Kane, Dan Belkin, Kaku Armah, and Brendan Milliner. And with the input of this "Hall of Fame" class, we've tried to bring you one of our strongest issues ever. It includes meditations on the vocabulary of diabetes from James Hirsch; thoughts from UK patient Carol King on Victoza, a brand new drug for type 2 diabetes; and an interview with Dr. Richard Bergenstal, current President of the American Diabetes Association. Our gratitude goes out to our former team members for their help in shaping diaTribe into what it is today, to our stellar advisory board for its valued guidance and insight, and of course, to you, the reader.

As it was three years ago, our mission at diaTribe remains to improve patient outcomes by getting our readers the best information on diabetes. Diabetes was then, and is even more so today, a large and complicated field from multinational companies to sprawling clinics, from prestigious academic centers to remote research labs. It is filled with exciting breakthroughs and heartbreaking disappointments, but ultimately it's about patients like you and me who want to live long, healthy lives. We hope diaTribe can help you down that road. As we said before and we repeat today, we might rant, we might rave, we might lament or celebrate, but we will always inform and enlighten.

We hope you love issue #20, and we thank you for your continued interest and support.

Yours,

Kelly L. Close