Holly Witteman

Former Liberal cabinet minister Kirsty Duncan dies at 59 OTTAWA — Former Liberal cabinet minister Kirsty Duncan has died at the age of 59 following a years-long battle with cancer. Born on Oct.

Gutted to learn of the passing of Dr Kirsty Duncan.

She was a tireless fighter for the people she served, not only her local community in Toronto but others, especially the science & research &
athletics communities too.

She championed equity, diversity, inclusion and made change happen.

🤍🙏🏻

Today’s xkcd made me cry.

In a good way.

xkcd.com/3172/

One of the cruelest tricks society played on creative people was planting the idea that being proud of your work is somehow unseemly and egotistical.

You made a thing! You like it! You SHOULD be proud of it. Brag all you want!

I have gone back to phoning references for a quick chat. I’ve also been asked to provide references by phone/videoconference. It is so much more efficient than letters.

CommunauDT1: un espace d'échange pour mieux vivre avec le diabète de type 1 La professeure Holly Witteman a lancé une communauté de soutien par les pairs liée à un projet de recherche pour mieux comprendre l'effet de ces échanges sur le bien-être des personnes touchées par cette maladie

CommunauDT1: un espace d'échange pour mieux vivre avec le #diabète de type 1
Holly Witteman

Attn: Canadian researchers/ If you are looking for text/arguments to mix-n-match in a letter to your MP, the committee, Ministers, etc.. here is some.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Sure. That’s the advice I gave and that’s what they did initially.

But it’s relevant to note that CVs are functions of many things beyond individual quality/effort (networks, proximity to prestige, etc.) & those things are distributed unevenly. A CV-based system needs a robust way to address that.

Canada tried that, more or less. Female PIs’ success rates fell compared to those of male PIs. (Other groups may have experienced similar effects, but there were no data at that time about other PI identity characteristics.) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

How to Communicate Medical Numbers-a @jama.com Insight from @angiefagerlin.bsky.social @athorpe8.bsky.social @uuhsresearch.bsky.social, @bzikmund.bsky.social @umich.edu

Read and listen to the podcast for useful tips and tools that could improve patient health+lives. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Illustration of a magnifying glass below text that reads "Freedom to research." Unlock Education campaign logo and "Education2025.ca" URL below the magnifying glass.

In Canada, proposed cuts of 15% across the federal government would have a dramatic effect on already globally decimated research & science.

Join Canada's research & science community and tell PM Mark Carney to preserve the funding promised in 2024.

Send a letter: win.newmode.net/canadianasso...

Global Inequities in Diabetes Technology and Insulin Access and Glycemic Outcomes This cross-sectional study estimates the association of accessibility and reimbursement for diabetes technologies and insulin with glycemic control among children with type 1 diabetes using data from ...

This is a nice study showing that out-of-pocket costs for diabetes technologies are associated with worse HbA1c levels.

I wish there were more granular data on actual costs and affordability instead of just bucketing 'reimbursed' vs 'not reimbursed.'

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Are you living with T1D*? Are you parenting a child with T1D? Do you have a family member, partner, or friend with T1D? *or LADA/MODY/type 3c diabetes You are not alone … find your type 1 diabetes community! Join CommuniT1D.ca, a free Canadian program of monthly online meetings. talk to others with shared experience share your story share what you know get & give support learn improve your wellbeing make new friends find diabuddies (buddies with diabetes) get connected build community The program will match you with a small group of others (about 4-6 people total) according to your interests and what matters to you. JOIN US HERE! (link to communit1d.ca) A drawing of six people with arms around each other, several sensors visible on their arms CommuniT1D.ca is funded by Breakthrough T1D Canada (formerly known as JDRF Canada) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The program was designed and is run by people living with T1D or LADA, parents of children with T1D, scientists, doctors, and other experts. Research ethics approval: CIUSSS-CER-S 2024-2887

Vivez-vous avec un DT1* ? Êtes-vous parent d'un enfant atteint d'un DT1 ? Avez-vous un membre de votre famille, un.e conjoint.e ou un.e ami.e atteint.e de DT1 ? *ou d'un diabète LADA/MODY/type 3c Vous n'êtes pas seul(e) ... trouvez votre communauté du diabète de type 1! Rejoignez CommunauDT1.ca, un programme canadien gratuit de réunions virtuelles mensuelles en ligne. Cela vous permettra de : parler à d'autres personnes qui partagent la même expérience partager votre histoire partager ce que vous savez obtenir et offrir du soutien apprendre améliorer votre bien-être se faire de nouveaux amis trouver des diabètami.es (ami.es diabétiques) se connecter avec les autres créer une communauté Le programme vous mettra en contact avec un petit groupe d'autres personnes (environ 4 à 6 personnes au total) en fonction de vos intérêts et de ce qui compte pour vous. REJOIGNEZ-NOUS ICI ! (lien au communaudt1.ca) Dessin de 6 personnes, les bras entourés, avec quelques capteurs visibles CommunauDT1.ca est financé par la Percée T1D Canada (anciennement FRDJ Canada) et les Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada. Le programme a été conçu et est géré par des personnes atteintes de DT1 ou de LADA, des parents d'enfants atteints de DT1, des scientifiques, des médecins et d'autres experts. Approbation éthique de la recherche : CIUSSS-CER-S 2024-2887

Are you living in Canada with #type1diabetes (yourself or a loved one)? You are not alone … find your #T1D community at communiT1D.ca!

Vivez-vous au Canada avec un #diabètedetype1 (vous-même ou un(e) proche)? Vous n'êtes pas seul(e) ... trouvez votre communauté du #DT1 au communauDT1.ca!

Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia in women of reproductive age: Sex- and gender-based risk factors and inequities Iron deficiency (ID) is a serious public health problem that affects 20–25 % of the population and 52 % of pregnant people worldwide. Biologically fem…

Women are disproportionately affected by #irondeficiency & #anaemia

We undertook a comprehensive review of

🔑 role of iron in women's health across the lifespan
✅ factors affecting iron bioavailability, ID/IDA
🚫 limitations of interventions
🙋🏽‍♀️need 4 better diagnosis & acceptable treatments 4 women

Yep. Quebec content helps dampen it but it’s such a dominant force.

So sorry to hear this. 💔 Wishing you and your family warmth, love, and meaningful time together in the days, weeks, and months to come.

Pro tip, folks: if you make a figure for a publication, don’t just hand the copyright over to the publisher. Post it on OSF first and then give yourself permission to use it in the first publication and then all future publications. That way, no permissions issues.

Home - CanScreen T1D Research Consortium The Canadian Population Screening for Risk of Type 1 Diabetes (CanScreen T1D) research consortium aims to launch a pilot screening program for children in Canada. The consortium studies the accessibil...

Italy is closest to this. But even their system is not up and running at full capacity yet. No country is doing it systematically across the board yet.

FYI Canada is exploring options: canscreent1d.ca

Google and Meta search both report that Cape Breton Island has its own time zone 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia time because they are both drawing that information from a Beaverton article I wrote in 2024

Tip for PhD applicants reaching out to prospective advisors: Don’t use an LLM to write these emails. It’s not a great first impression to express your admiration for a recent paper the faculty member published if that paper does not exist.

Large digital screen on a city street with Bicycles deliver the freedom that auto ads promise in white type on black

Happy World Bicycle Day.

Downside of working in diabetes research as a person with diabetes, a running list:

1. I now have to attend conferences whose taglines might as well be, “67 reasons your life sucks & 12 ways you could die soon.”

2. I cannot seem to bring myself to refuse requests to review from diabetes charities.

The program provides summary data. It’s often delayed by a cycle or so, but they do update semi-regularly.

The underlying summary data about the population of Canada and professors in Canada (the data sources that have driven the targets) are publicly available but raw data for the CRC program are not publicly available. It is personal (health) information protected under Canadian privacy laws.

Second, the targets are periodically renegotiated with the remaining living members of a group of women (I believe 6 are still living) whose complaint to the human rights commission about the program’s violation of Canadian employment equity law was upheld in 2006. Targets are not set by government.

First, the categories are not mutually exclusive. People can belong to more than one of these groups.

Communicating Numeric Risk Information to Patients - PubMed Risk information is increasingly available to health care providers and patients thanks to a growing body of health outcomes research and clinical prediction models. Meanwhile, communicating such info...

great work by @ellenpeters.bsky.social et al. Best practices include communicating with numbers; decreasing cognitive effort; providing meaning of numeric risk data; acknowledging uncertainty; testing communication through teach-back. #medsky pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40301218/

WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update (2025-2029)

Latest WMO decadal update is available:

- 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed 2024 as the warmest on record

- 70% chance that 5-year average warming for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5 °C

wmo.int/publication-...

Sending you all my best wishes for improved energy. ❤️