I'm Max Bingham. I'm a science writer covering diabetes research. Much of the stuff I write about diabetes is published by the American Diabetes Association in their research journals. I've been writing about diabetes research since 2015 and it is fair to say there is ALOT of research that is published, it seems, almost daily. I've found that diabetes research is also a bit of a multi-armed beast as it covers everything from pharmaceutical developments, mechanistic studies, clinical trials, fundamental molecular studies, tech developments, nutrition, policy, software and even a bit of economics. 

There is no way I can cover all of it. There is too much and to be honest, some of it is so technical and/or incremental that the best place for those sorts of developments are the pages of scientific journals. However, there are the more noteworthy developments that are worth covering because they might have a significant impact for patients in the near term. That is the aim of the Diabetablog: to cover noteworthy developments relating to diabetes research.

While I am writing this blog as an ongoing effort to track developments in the shorter term, note that I also write columns for Clinical Diabetes and Diabetes Spectrum. There is a chance that some of the content found here will feed into those columns. So, respectively, I am on the look out for research that will inform primary care providers, and also a wider diabetes care team. Can a finding be used tomorrow to help patients with diabetes?

In general, the approach of Diabetablog will be to cover developments that are generally 'positive' for patient care. That does not mean I won't cover controversial or more general issues. I think it is good to be reminded of trends that underpin the area. I am less certain about covering mal-practice. There are better people out there that cover that stuff.

I'm expecting that the primary sources for this adventure will be peer-reviewed journals and other sources such as official reports. I will also use press statements/releases relating to such reports. I will also try to source direct quotes from authors and relevant others. It is unlikely that I will shrill about over-blown claims in press statements that are not backed up by (verifiable) scientific research (take note).

About Max Bingham

In a previous life, I qualified in 2003 with a PhD from The University of Reading, UK. The broad area of my research was gastrointestinal microbiology as well as food biosciences (hint: it stank). I moved to Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2003 to complete a Marie-Curie Fellowship at Unilever R&D Vlaardingen in a slightly different research area (measurement sciences, yes, really). They evidently liked what I was doing as I stayed there as a research scientist working on microbiology, metabolomics and various nutrition-related topics up until 2010. That year, I decided to go freelance as a science writer and I've been doing it ever since. I have worked as a science writer/editor on numerous projects and topics.

Writing about Diabetes for the American Diabetes Association

I have been writing the 'In this Issue' section of both Diabetes and Diabetes Care since mid-2015. Grab a copy and you'll find the first article is 'In this Issue'. Here is an example from June 2018. I have also been writing for Clinical Diabetes and Diabetes Spectrum a section called Diabetes is Primary. Here is an example from the April 2018 issue of Clinical Diabetes.