Founded March 2008 Employees 5 | Location Berkeley, CA, U.S. | |
 | ||
Founders Manny Hernandez, Andreina Davila Focus "No one touched by diabetes should ever feel alone." Key people Eugene Kunde (CEO), Dennis Urbaniak (Chair) | ||
Diabetes Hands Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Berkeley, California that has been connecting, empowering, and mobilizing the diabetes community since 2008. Diabetes Hands Foundation is funded through sponsorship income, donations, grants, and earned income.
Contents
Online Communities
TuDiabetes (in English) and EsTuDiabetes (in Spanish), are social networks for people touched by diabetes. The sites were established in 2007 as the first social network for people touched by diabetes. TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes have more than 65,000 registered members and are visited by well over 200,000 people per month. Initially built on the Ning platform, both nonprofit online communities were moved to the Discourse platform in 2015 to continue helping patients live with diabetes without feeling alone.
Between 2010 and 2013, Diabetes Hands Foundation partnered with Children's Hospital Boston to develop TuAnalyze (in English) and EsTuAnalisis (in Spanish), two diabetes data collection, mapping, and surveying applications. Members of the online communities could submit their Hemoglobin A1C data, and the aggregate data and displays the results on maps. The project's goal was to rapidly survey and better understand populations of people with diabetes through data donations. A research paper detailing the first lessons learned in connection with TuAnalyze was published in the Public Library of Science in 2011, and many other survey results have been published by the Boston research team.
Big Blue Test
The Big Blue Test is a program started by Diabetes Hands Foundation to raise awareness of the importance of exercise for people with diabetes. The program takes place leading up to World Diabetes Day (November 14). It reinforces the importance of exercise in managing diabetes by having participants test their blood sugar, get active, test again, and share the results online at bigbluetest.org. The results typically show how exercise reduces blood sugar levels for both people with diabetes and people without diabetes. For each Big Blue Test submitted, a donation to a diabetes charity has been made to help people with diabetes in need of supplies and/or education. More than 100,000 Big Blue Test entries have been received since 2009. As a consequence, more than $250,000 have been awarded in the form of Big Blue Test grants.
Diabetes Advocates
Diabetes Advocates is a program that serves as a platform for connecting individuals and organizations that have taken a leadership role in improving the world for people touched by diabetes, to amplify their voices, offer assistance in accurate reporting about diabetes in the media, and increase their impact in the diabetes community. Since 2009, the program has grown to nearly 400 members, many of whom have been featured on Health.com and other publications. Among other benefits, members are eligible to apply for scholarships to attend diabetes conferences, and micro-grants to support their creative ideas focused on making life better with diabetes possible. In 2012, nine grants of $2,000 were awarded as part of this program in support of diabetes education and awareness campaigns, conducted in their majority by members of Diabetes Advocates.
Word in Your Hand
The Word in Your Hand project invites participants to share photos showing a word in their hands describing life with diabetes. Through the project, people with diabetes along with their family, friends and caregivers describe their feelings towards diabetes. Between 2008 and 2011, DHF licensed the Word in Your Hand project to LifeScan, Inc. for use as part of its Global Diabetes Handprint Campaign.
No-Sugar Added Poetry
No-Sugar Added Poetry is a book of diabetes poems published in 2010 by the Diabetes Hands Foundation. It contains poems about life with diabetes written by members of TuDiabetes.org with a foreword by Bill Polonsky, founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute.
HealthSeeker
HealthSeeker was a social game on Facebook aimed at helping people live healthy lifestyles. The game was developed in 2010 by the Diabetes Hands Foundation in collaboration with the Joslin Diabetes Center. Players select missions such as stress-reducing or exercise-inducing activities to complete within a given period of time to help create a healthier lifestyle. In November 2010, the game was made available in Spanish. In June 2011, a HealthSeeker mobile app became available for iPhone and Android users. In late 2012, Diabetes Hands Foundation sold HealthSeeker to Ayogo Health, the original developer of the game.
Awards and Recognition
Board of Directors, Advisors
Chairing the Board is Dennis Urbaniak. Among the members of the board are former acting United States Surgeon General, Kenneth P. Moritsugu; Lorraine Stiehl and Dayton Coles, current and former members of the Board of Directors for JDRF, respectively; Donna Hill, Vice President, Legal at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics; and other key Patient Opinion Leaders in diabetes.
DHF has received advice from Dr. Anne Peters, from Keck School of Medicine, USC; John Brooks, from Joslin Diabetes Center; Paul Madden; Steve Edelman, from TCOYD; Bill Polonsky, from Behavioral Diabetes Institute; Jeff Hitchcock, from Children With Diabetes; Kerri Sparling (from Six Until Me); Huffington Post columnist and diabetes advocate Riva Greenberg, mHealth Alliance Executive Team Member Jody Ranck; John Sjolund the CEO of Patients Pending Ltd the makers of Timesulin and others.