Holly Witteman's Avatar

Holly Witteman

@hwitteman.bsky.social

Professor & Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Digital Health at Université Laval in Québec City 🇨🇦, PhD human factors engineering, #T1D since 1983, 💙 DIY looping #WeAreNotWaiting, En/Fr

726 Followers  |  350 Following  |  169 Posts  |  Joined: 04.10.2023  |  1.7628

Latest posts by hwitteman.bsky.social on Bluesky

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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...

24.09.2025 19:08 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0
Illustration of a magnifying glass below text that reads "Freedom to research." Unlock Education campaign logo and "Education2025.ca" URL below the magnifying glass.

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...

18.09.2025 21:30 — 👍 28    🔁 36    💬 0    📌 4
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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...

28.08.2025 10:09 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
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

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

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!

07.07.2025 18:12 — 👍 6    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
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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

27.06.2025 19:01 — 👍 6    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

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

17.06.2025 01:17 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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

16.06.2025 20:54 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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.

10.06.2025 19:59 — 👍 423    🔁 141    💬 18    📌 11
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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

10.06.2025 11:24 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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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

10.06.2025 00:50 — 👍 6794    🔁 1891    💬 110    📌 220

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.

05.06.2025 13:27 — 👍 1617    🔁 249    💬 51    📌 59
Large digital screen on a city street with Bicycles deliver the freedom that auto ads promise in white type on black

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.

03.06.2025 11:07 — 👍 923    🔁 248    💬 5    📌 18

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.

03.06.2025 02:12 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

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

30.05.2025 01:12 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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.

30.05.2025 00:34 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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.

29.05.2025 18:30 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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

29.05.2025 18:30 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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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/

29.05.2025 09:35 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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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-...

28.05.2025 09:44 — 👍 45    🔁 26    💬 4    📌 2

Sending you all my best wishes for improved energy. ❤️

26.05.2025 21:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I’m sorry about the ignorant comment that led to you posting it, but what a great graph. 💙 I’ve lived through a lot of those advancements (dxd as a child in 1983.) I hope US science can recover after the current terrible time and we keep making rapid progress. Wishing all the best to your daughter.

26.05.2025 11:50 — 👍 7    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

New Forbes story about the economic consequences of science cuts.

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Thoughtful and thorough analysis.

1/n

20.05.2025 20:28 — 👍 122    🔁 88    💬 2    📌 8

The term empowerment is often misused, most often in some form of, “we’re going to empower patients to do the tasks we’ve decided should be done.” I really hate it.

The term codesign has similar issues. Codesign means you share power equally. Too often that isn’t how projects are set up.

20.05.2025 16:55 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

By @sabivm.bsky.social

16.05.2025 00:23 — 👍 6    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Yellow and red tulips in front of a pink Magnolia tree.

Yellow and red tulips in front of a pink Magnolia tree.

Lunchtime at the ULaval botanical gardens. (Roger van den Hende gardens.)

15.05.2025 00:15 — 👍 30    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

It’s comforting to know this happens in both directions. One of my personal faves has always been the urgent email in English claiming to be from my institution’s IT department, who would never, ever—not in a million years—send me an email in English.

14.05.2025 19:11 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Congratulations to our co-president, Dr. Kristin Connor (@kconnor.bsky.social), for being awarded the Nick Hales Award by the International DOHaD Society. #DOHaD2025

13.05.2025 19:35 — 👍 8    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0

"When we buy something, we don't pay for it with money,
we pay for it with the time we had to spend to get that money. Remember that everything can be bought, except time/life."

Pepe Mujica (1935-2025)

13.05.2025 20:02 — 👍 11    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Why Primary Care Should Work Like Public Schools with Dr. Rita McCracken Podcast Episode · Primary Focus with Dr. Tara Kiran · 2025-05-08 · 35m

Loved the chat with @tarakiran.bsky.social about what we can learn from public schools to deal with the #familydoctorshortage & managed to squeeze in a reference to the idea of thick v. thin relationships that I learned from reading @deanspade.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

13.05.2025 20:20 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

@hwitteman is following 20 prominent accounts