Collecting my own data

As well as using physicians data in my documentary, I'm conducting my own research to go a long side it.

I haven't got the training, equipment or funding to set up trials for collecting medical data, so I've made a survey. This survey aims to find out what percentage of type one Diabetics (T1DB's) would qualify for a flash glucose monitor if it was funded in their area.

The way the survey achieves this aim is by using the same questioning as the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence). These questions are guidelines set up for hospitals to use when deciding who qualifies for a flash glucose monitor, to ensure that it's still cost effective when it's handed out. It asks questions such as:

1. Would you use this device 70% of the time?

2. Do you have an extreme fear of hypos?

3. Do you have complete hypo unawareness?

Official NICE guidelines

The physical version of my survey which I have handed out at hospitals looks like this:

Front page of the survey which has links to the questions online with a QR code and URL

It's proving quite difficult finding people to fill out the survey because I'm looking at quite a specific demographic. I'm only asking T1DB's who live in an area which doesn't fund the Flash glucose monitor to fill out the survey.

I'm slowly but surely finding these people by sharing my survey online through Facebook groups dedicated to T1DB's, there is also a link to the survey on this blog.

Green arrows point to the T1D groups I have joined and posted in.

Hopefully if I keep posting the survey online I'll get enough applicants to make my data worthy of being included in the documentary.