In this mostly youthful group, I stood out as the oldest and also the tallest, as you can see in this group photo:

I'm the Tall Guy in the Back Row Second from Right

Considering that 90 to 95 person of people with diabetes have type 2, it might seem strange that all but two of the 29 have type 1. Charlie Cherry, the founder and producer of DiabetesPowerShow (at top right in the photo above), was the only other type 2 except me at the meeting. But relatively few of us type 2s are patient advocates; my good friend Gretchen Becker, who also writes for Health Central, is the biggest exception.

But a huge gap at the meeting was the absence of the two Godmothers, June Bierman and Barbara Toohey. Most of us diabetes old-timers got our first lessons on how to live with diabetes from their books. I had the privilege of working with June and Barbara in 1999 and 2000, but they are now retired.

I'm sure that all 29 of Roche's invited guests had a wonderful time getting to know each other better -- and getting to know Roche for the first time. Few people realize it, because Roche is low-key about it, but they are the world's biggest meter and strip manufacturer. In the U.S. Roche offers the Aviva and the Compact Plus blood glucose meters.

We weren't shy about telling Roche executives what we thought they could do better. While we seemed to recognize that Roche is the quality producer in the diabetes meter marketplace, much of our outspoken input focused on the high cost of diabetes, specifically the cost of blood glucose testing.

Roche made the brave first move to the diabetes community as represented by us 29 patient advocates. We responded. Now we are hoping for the dialogue to continue and strengthen.