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Spending time listening to, learning from and identifying ways to help address the unmet needs of the diabetes online community (DOC) is one aspect of my Community Manager role that I particularly enjoy. Whether it’s online via Twitter or Facebook, or in-person at events like the ADA Scientific Sessions or IDF’s Unite For A Health Future, I am both inspired and encouraged by members of the DOC who want to connect, engage and share with us.

One message I have heard loud and clear is that living with diabetes is an ongoing, lifelong learning process. With this comes the need for helpful and convenient educational resources. In direct response to this need, I’m extremely excited to announce the launch of Diabetapedia (di-ah-bee-tah-pee-dee-ah), a digital resource developed with the goal of creating a single, comprehensive place where anyone can find and share definitions of diabetes-related terms and phrases.

There is almost always something to learn when it comes to diabetes, particularly for those newly-diagnosed, for those who may have a family member or close friend living with the condition, or even for those new to the DOC. While initially learning about managing blood sugars, a person is likely to hear terms like sucrose, metabolism, glycemic index, and combination therapy, but may not know what they mean. When beginning to engage online, an entirely new set of words and jargon like d-mom, DOC, dBlog and type awesome may enter into the equation. This new lexicon can be a lot like learning a new language, so where better to start than with an online dictionary of terms specific to diabetes?

While researching for Diabetapedia, I found plenty of good definitions available across various blogs and forums, but there wasn’t one central location to access them. So, to fill that gap, we built Diabetapedia and uploaded 119 common diabetes terms and corresponding definitions. All of the terms include a general definition from the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary (when available), a more specific diabetes-related definition, and any alternate uses of the term that might apply. For some, we even included an example of a tweet or a post that demonstrates how the term is commonly used.

The actual launch of Diabetapedia is just the starting point. We need your help to grow this resource:

If you see a term or phrase missing, or one that may need enhancing, we encourage you to submit your recommendation(s) using the links at the bottom of any Diabetapedia page.

Your Diabetapedia Likes & Tweets may help create a DHF Diabetes Advocates’ Scholarship Fund. Like & Tweet the various terms and phrases included in Diabetapedia. In doing so, not only will you help establish Diabetapedia as a go-to resource, but you’ll also support the goal to create a Diabetes Advocates’ Scholarship Fund. It will only take 2,500 combined Likes & Tweets, so start sharing now!

We hope that you’ll check out Diabetapedia now and help us evolve the resource over time such that it best serves the needs of the diabetes community. I’d also love to hear your thoughts or feedback in the comments below.

All the best,

Laura K.

Tags: diabetapedia

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 5:00 am and is filed under Featured, General, Services. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.