Late last year T1DN asked for your feedback on funding of insulin pumps through private health insurance (PHI). We had a great response with over 300 people providing some fantastic detail around the trials and tribulations of dealing with PHIs (plus some of you who had successes and no problems!).

The collated data was recently presented to Samantha Gavel, the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (yes there is an ombudsman for this, put your hand up if you knew that), by our project leader Chris with support from our president Natasha. The meeting produced some great insights into how the ombudsman operates, and was an opportunity to provide detail about issues faced by people with type 1 when accessing funding for insulin pumps.

The ombudsman agreed that more information needs to be available on how funding of insulin pumps works and the insurer's responsibility to provide this. We are also working closely with the ombudsman's office to re-write the Insulin Pump fact sheet to be more user friendly and helpful; we hope to have the revised document available to you mid-year.

Our next step in the coming months is to continue our advocacy on this issue by taking a jump into politics and hopefully presenting the data to the Federal Health Minister and Shadow Health Minister, along with the Department of Health and Ageing (who are running the PBS review into insulin pumps).

In the meantime, if you experience any issues accessing funding for a pump (new or replacement), and you're unable to resolve it with your insurer, don't be afraid to contact the ombudsman to seek assistance. They work closely with the insurers to make your interactions as smooth as possible, and if they aren't aware of the issues then they can't help!

Use the following link to contact the ombudsman: www.phio.org.au.  

T1DN also gave the results of our insulin pump survey to the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) - an organisation that represents the interests of all Australian healthcare consumers.

The CHF used the survey feedback to write a submission to the PBS review of products used in diabetes management, which is looking at clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of pump use, as well as how to determine eligibility for pump subsidies - a copy of the submission is available here.

Rugby league fans would already be familiar with Steve Renouf who played for the Brisbane Broncos from 1989-1999. What you may not know is that Steve was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1992 in the middle of his career after already representing Queensland and Australia. The diagnosis had little effect on his stellar career, apart from the obvious increased attention to diet and insulin.

Steve was an outstanding attacking centre with silky skills and an impressive step that often left defences grasping at air. In 2008, he was named in the Indigenous Team of the Century.

Steve and his wife Elissa have five children, four of whom have also been diagnosed with type 1! As a family they have started a company that produces diabetes products - diabete-ezy.com. Steve's playing career and family certainly show that excelling in all aspects of life with type 1 is possible.

A bunch of exciting science related to type 1 came out over the last month. Below are some brief summaries of the bits we found most interesting.

Western Australian researchers have developed a cheaper genetic test for type 1, potentially reducing the cost of the test from $300 to less than $50. The research narrowed the number of genetic markers required to 3, which will allow more accurate focus for future research into causes and a cure. 

T1 diabetes rates have been found to be higher in countries with lower mortality from infectious diseases. A study from the University of Malta suggested that not being exposed to pathogens early in life may increase the risk of type 1. This is still just an association and there isn't proof yet that this is a cause of type 1. 

This month JDRF in the US released a new toolkit with information about pregnancy with type 1 diabetes. It is freely available as a pdf from http://jdrf.org/life-with-t1d/pregnancy/ (requires registering an email address).

The toolkit covers all stages of pregnancy from planning conception to after the birth, and how to have a happy and healthy pregnancy (and baby!) while managing the challenges that type 1 adds.

The 'original' pregnancy guide for type 1 is called Can I have a healthy baby? and was produced collaboratively by the Type 1 Diabetes Network with other diabetes organisations in 2008.

Potential Sydney meet-up

A Sydney meet-up is planned for the near future - venue and date to be confirmed. Check out the Reality Check thread to register your interest and keep in touch with what is planned.

Type 1 Diabetes Capricorn Connection (T1DCC)

T1DCC invites all adults living with type 1 diabetes to attend their next support group meeting in Yeppoon on Saturday 6 April.

Kate Marsh (one of our Expert Advisory Group) is a dietitian and diabetes educator who also has type 1, and has been asked to present a session on nutrition and exercise for type 1 diabetes at a fitness industry conference in April. 

The audience will be mostly personal trainers and Kate would like to present some feedback from you (people with type 1) about your experience working with personal trainers, including what you found helpful, what you didn't and what you wish they knew or understood about type 1 and how it might affect your exercise. 

Even if you have never worked with a trainer, Kate is still interested in hearing what you would like a trainer to know about type 1 if you ever were going to use one. The short survey takes just a few minutes and your input would be much appreciated and will help Kate better educate the fitness industry about the needs of those of us with type 1. Please visit the survey here.