Project Summary
During Tier I, we developed several meaningful partnerships and became the Intercultural Diabetes Online Community Research (iDOCr) council. Our council is made up of English- and Spanish-speaking e-community members with diabetes, diabetes advocates, industry representatives, clinicians, caregivers, academic affiliations, and research scientists. Our goals for Tier II are to (1) strengthen the governance structure and communication plans for our council; (2) raise national awareness of the iDOCr council through the use of social media, publications, and presentations to develop more partnership opportunities; (3) frequently interact with and learn from the English- and Spanish-speaking diabetes online communities through Facebook groups, Twitter chats, and blog postings; and (4) begin the development of several potential comparative effectiveness research questions.
Our council will meet virtually once a month to accomplish our goals and interact with our partner communities, and will use social media to communicate on a daily or weekly basis. The highlight of Tier II will be when the council meets in person in July at the Children with Diabetes, Friends for Life conference in Orlando, Florida. At that event, we will connect on a personal level in an inspirational environment surrounded by diabetes online community members, their caregivers, and diabetes advocates.