Is it possible for a show about disease to help people?
At lunch at a fancy Philadelphia restaurant, advertising entrepreneur Howard Steinberg lifts his shirt and shows off two gadgets that he keeps connected to his bloodstream at all times. One measures his blood sugar, and the other is a computerized pump that dispenses insulin. “I’m doing what my pancreas isn’t,” he says between bites of diabetes-friendly sashimi.
Steinberg, 50, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 10 and started out in denial. Away at a sleepover camp, he ran out of insulin, didn’t tell his counselors and almost died three days later. Ever since he’s been compulsive about staying on top of his diabetes.
In 2004 he founded a company called DLife, which sounds the message far and wide that people can control and master their diabetes just like he has. The half-hour television show–a disguised infomercial– airs on CNBC on Sunday nights. A related Web site with 720,000 members is filled with chat boards, advice and a shopping mall.
The show is hosted by a former Miss America with diabetes, and offers tips on health, cooking and travel, as well as interviews with celebrities who have diabetes, like Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler and CBS newsman Bob Schieffer on how they manage their diabetes and the difference in symptoms, medication, diet, exercise and more – showing that every person is unique and there is no exact “one size fits all” way to deal with diabetes. This shows that if you have diabetes, you can create your own regimen and adapt it to your own particular lifestyle so that you can stay healthy and enjoy life in the best way for you.
In one segment a correspondent with juvenile (type 1) diabetes flies to Guatemala to see Mayan ruins. He surveys the country’s understocked pharmacies and hospitals. Says a shopkeeper: “No tiene insulina.” 229,000 households tune in to any given segment, so thousands of people see this particular segment and many can possibly help.
No question patients can use more information and prodding. Twenty-four million Americans suffer from diabetes, which can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and limb amputation, and nearly half fail to keep the disease under control. One study found that 46% of recently diagnosed adult diabetics (type 2) don’t take their medicine correctly. Diabetics rack up $174 billion a year in health spending, according to government estimates.
But there is a question as to whether the show is really reaching people who don’t take their meds – or does it just help sell expensive gadgets to motivated patients who are already doing better than most? One certainty: Steinberg’s media company has profit potential. DLife, in Westport, Conn., has 33 employees and should break even this year on $15 million in ad sales. Steinberg buys the 30 minutes on CNBC and sells the ads himself. Advertisers include Ocean Spray (light cranberry juice), Merck (nyse: MRK – news – people ) (Januvia), Abbott Laboratories (nyse: ABT – news – people ) (glucose monitors) and Rite Aid (nyse: RAD – news – people ), which gets 31% of its sales from diabetics.
Steinberg says he doesn’t interfere with editorial content. Yet the show avoids controversial subjects that might offend potential advertisers. In 2007 GlaxoSmithkline’s Avandia was linked to higher rates of heart disease. The program didn’t cover the controversy.
The physician view: Patient education is a good thing, but let’s not kid ourselves that the average American can be as effective as Steinberg at managing blood work and pills on his own. “I have 1,500 people under my care. Maybe 2 or 3 are like that,” says Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Zachary Bloomgarden, who hasn’t seen the show. “If you are your own doctor, you have a fool for a doctor.” Steinberg says he isn’t against doctors. But he thinks that anything that gets more patients to pay more attention to their diabetes and make more of a concerted effort of keeping it under control can feel better longer and slow down the progression of the disease. It’s great if people purchase any of the items offered on the show, but the larger purpose is to tune them in to effective ways to take care of themselves, whether they ever purchase anything or not.
Encouraging people to take their medication and live a healhy life is a good thing no matter what other information is provided.
Some quotes courtesy of FORBES.