Recent Posts by marke - DAFNE Online

Feb 7, 2013

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Diabulemia is becoming a growing problem

There is no definite answers to this I'm afraid. I know people who lost a lot of weight, people who lost no weight and people who put on weight. People often put on weight just after the course because their insulin is more effective by virtual of the fact its more accurate to what your body needs were before the course there was too much or too little. However once you get past that you then have the flexibility to eat less and exercise more with the tools to manage these things so in theory losing weight is easier. I say in theory because losing weight never seems that easy Very Happy

Jan 19, 2013

marke 657 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Greggs baguette sandwiches

Hi, there is a link in the Carb Counter, Carb links on this site to a Greggs PDF of bagettes etc. It is from August2010 but still seems to work and I guess is still largely correct.

Jan 13, 2013

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses

Alan, seems it is called MIMINT1E ( boy do they need a new marketing person Very Happy

) but is as you describe. So what happened to choice in the NHS ? you can choose a hospital for an operation (supposedly ) but not your Diabetes education. A real shame but hopefully any Diabetes education is better than none. I hope the course goes well and your niece gets some real benefit out of it.

Jan 8, 2013

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / 5htp

I ggogled it as well Very Happy

and noticed it mentioned an effect on the liver, since this is what secreets glucose I would guess its possible that 5htp does somehow increase blood glucose. However since its an 'over the counter' drug in the UK i.e not prescribed and maybe not licensed I'm not sure how much research into side effects would have been done.

Dec 23, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses

hmm, interesting question I'm not sure if you can do DAFNE out of area since I think you may have to be referred. Carolin can probably answer this if she reads this post, if not I will ask DAFNE Central if there is a way of this happening. I suspected it was not DAFNE, I'm in East Kent and we have now lost DAFNE in favour of KATIE (??) so people here are in the same position.

Dec 23, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / retinopathy

I think you should speak to your Diabetes team about it. I don't believe that reducing your BG quickly can cause retinopathy but I have no medical training. I appreciate that speaking to anyone will be difficult at the moment but you need expert advice rather than that of other Diabetics.
I know its easy to say, but try not to worry about the letter too much. I have received one in the past and its scary because they don't provide any real advice with it. Personally I think they should speak to you in person and explain exactly what the letter means and answer the questions everyone immediately has when they get the letter. The important thing is it is picked up early and can then be monitored. The fact you have reduced your HBA1C is good it will reduce the chances of it worsening. My consultants opinion is things like this are almost inevitable if you have had Diabetes long term and is not necessarily a major problem.

Dec 19, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses

Alan, who told you that Medway were running DAFNE ? The reason I ask is they were a DAFNE Centre but dropped out, as did my centre East Kent. Unfortunately in Kent they like to invent their own education programmes so as well as modifying DESMOND and calling it DEREK, they have also 'dropped'
DAFNE and come up with 'KATIE' ( which I'm still trying to get information on).
It would not suprise me if Meday have also invented their own course, it should NOT be called DAFNE however since it is not. Let us know if you find out what they are doing....

Dec 17, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / UK carb counters

try here https://play.google.com/store/search?q=DAFNE&c=apps and select the first in the list....

Dec 17, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / overnight BGs

I don't think there is any problem with Graduates replying to threads in this forum if they give sensible answers like yours. I susepct a HCP response would be along the same lines. Although I would ask why you reduced your BI in the first place ?

Dec 17, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / UK carb counters

I will check, the DAFNE iPhone app does this and I think the Android one does as well but I'm not sure. Both would have UK carb info becasue they are based on the UK DAFNE carb book.

Dec 13, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / ignorance

I have to admit I would not expect my manager to know how to deal with Diabetes or any other condition, You didn't say if you work in a role that requires medical expertise. There are many many administration roles in the NHS that do not involve any medical training.
I would not necessarily call this ignorance more lack of sensitivity, I take an interest in my staff and their issues but doing this is just a personal thing not a requirement of my role. To get the best out of your team you need to understand them however other methods are available and work in different scenarios.
I don't think this is a diabetes issue more of a general issue and personally I always make sure people I am with understand my condition and what it means.
they don't always remember but at least some of it goes in. Maybe you have already tried and this person is a lost cause, some are. I don't think we need legal support to make people understand medical conditions we just need people who WANT to understand.

Dec 13, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / exercise

One point that neither of you have mentioned is that exercise can affect your BG's for at least 24 hours. Even though you have finnished the exercise your body still needs glucose to feed the muscles that have been used in the exercise. You need to consider this, however we cannot tell you exactly what the effect on you will be nor how long it will last sice we are all different.
You should still exercise however as this will mean your body has less insulin 'resistance' generally and so works more efficiently, even T1's can resist insulin remember the big difference is
we have to 'mainline' the insulin in Very Happy

So keeping up the exercise will help your overall levels AND you will be able to work out the effects it is having on your BG since you will get more
practice at working it out !

Dec 3, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Sick day

Hi, no need to apologise ! I agree with everything you say, but my hands are tied about the handbook. Like you and probably most graduates, the first I knew about the effects of sickness was from the DAFNE Course. If I could not get on the course then how would I have found out. It is frustrating but there are no easy answers. The e-petition raised by the DAFNE User Action Group is an attempt to change this by pushing for Structured Education for ALL Diabetics.
This will be a news item as well as being in the forums soon, so people can sign up to it.

Dec 3, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Sick day

Hi sorry but you cannot access the page unless you are a DAFNE Graduate, this is the rule by which we are allowed to have the handbook on the site.
Its mainly because things like the sick day rules presume you are familiar with the rest of the course and so if you applied them without understanding the rest you may make things worse instead of better.

The summary of them, is indeed your body needs insulin even if you don't eat especially when you are ill. Your liver will most likely release sugar to help you fight the infection, this will raise your Blood Sugar even if you don't eat. When your Blood Sugar exceeds certain levels you are likely to produce Ketones that if they are not treated can make you very ill. If you have not done DAFNE try to find out if your area offers any Diabetes Training or even ask your Diabetes team for advice. They should be able to help you with advice about what you shoudl do when you are ill.

Nov 27, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Site Development / Uploading Data (Re-visited)

I said I was not going to bore people with techo-bablle Laughing

Yes I am referring to REST. I think csv would be too complicated to implement on the server side in terms of validation. Its possible but I would be concerned about the damage that could be done with a csv file.....

Nov 26, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Site Development / Uploading Data (Re-visited)

Hi,
There IS a way of interfacing to the site directly to upload your data, I won't bore everyone with techno-babble so if you email us using the 'contact DAFNE Online' at the bottom of every page we can help. I one day hope to write a programme that allows lots of different meters to be interfaced to the site to upload data. It the moment I am bogged down in updating the Oz handbook and have not had chance to progress this at all. In the meantime I am more than happy to try to provide you with assistance to interface what you have written to the site.

Nov 22, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / How to upload diary from app to website

Hi, You don't is the short answer Very Happy

If you have diary upload turned on all you need to do is add a new entry whilst you have data coverage ( this means you can browse to a web site on your phone, where the app is installed) and the app will automatically upload any entries that are not already on the site. Why doesn't it do this automatically anyway ? Well the problem is, it would need to keep checking all the time if it could connect to the site in the background, this would flatten the battery quicker and unnecessarily use up your data allowance. By only doing it when you have added an entry it knows there is at least one entry to upload and so it is worthwhile connecting to the site to do this. Whilst adding the new entry it checks if any others need to be uploaded and uploads them.
If it still doesn't work when you add a new entry then you don't have data coverage or your user account details are wrong but this should cause an error message to appear.

Nov 15, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / snacking and corrections

hi, sorry maybe that came across a bit wrong. What I meant was your control of Blood Sugar is not normal, as people we are no different from anyone else
and DAFNE makes you able to eat 'normally' ( not what you want, thats not normal even for non-diabetics Laughing

).
I guess with you its really your decision, the DAFNE 'rules' provide guidelines to what you should do however we are ALL different and react differently. It
may be that the previous QA dose in your case has stopped having an effect it may not. There is also the fact that if you are like me when you are at 15 correction doses don't follow a linear pattern and you can pump in 5 units with little apparent effect. So maybe try experimenting with corrections but
make sure you start off cautiously and make sure you consider any correction the next time you inject i.e if you correct at 11am then eat at 12, the previous
insulin is still working....

Nov 12, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / snacking and corrections

Hi Gemsa, sorry bad news you are no longer 'normal'. What happens to 'normal' people no longer applies to you. What Carolin was trying to say was say you eat at 6pm, inject 12 units and have 120carbs ( where you are on 1:1 and 10carbs = 1 unit). If you test 1 hour later your body is still digesting the food and your BG will be higher than normal. If its 14 and you decide to correct and give yourself 3 units to bring you back to 5 ( generalising a lot about the exact
effect of insulin), you now potentially have 15 units working on 12CP's which may be too much and will force you too low. Your QA insulin will generally keep working for upto 5 hours, this is the danger of injecting between meals.
In an ideal world our BG stays within range after meals, but its not an ideal world so we are trying to make the best we can of it. If your BG is back in range before the next meal then generally you are doing ok. You can try to get better control than this but is very difficult. You don't have the feedback mechanism that a normal person has. You cannot secreet insulin at just the right time to balance the sugar in your blood, All you can do is put it into your body fat and let it be absorbed into your system at roughly the rate required. This is not precise but its as good as it gets with technology as it is at the moment. Maybe one day this will change but not in the immediate future.

Nov 12, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE view of Post-meal BG Testing

I wouldn't say it is completely unnecessary, however I would also say it is not covered in the course because no research has been conducted to prove its benefits. Its nothing to do with test strip economy more to do with the don't tell you stuff that is not backed up by research, Thats the point of DAFNE it is all backed up by research.
You will find loads of discussions on Diabetes sites regarding post-meal highs and their significance. However my personal view is most of it is not backed up by any real research just opinions. Whilst everyones opinion is valid, at the end of the day thats all it is. I have my own personal views but its not for me to tell you what is right or wrong. If there IS some solid research hopefully someone will respond with some links to it.

Oct 26, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / new meter

Not strictly true. The DVLA are apparently saying that all Diabetics 'may' have their meter checked for all licenses. I would not be too worried though since this is apparently only in rare circumstances. Personally I think it is an intrusion into private information and none of their business. It would be interesting to see if any one challenges this if they try to withdraw anyones license based on this information. Firstly I don't see how they can demand access to it and secondly a meters readings could easily be fabricated and don't show severe hypo's. I don't know about you but if I was to need assistance for a hypo I'm not going to be using my blood meter am I ? I'm not going to know what the hell is going on.
The whole idea is just bizzare and sums up the DVLA who are happy to sell your personal data to anyone who will pay but then think they can invade your privacy. Just say no Wink

Oct 25, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / new contour next usb blood glucose monitor

I would never pay for a meter! All meter companies make their money on the test strips. If you contact your DAFNE educator or local diabetes team they may well have a meter they can give you. If not contact Bayer and say you are interested in their meter, they are likely to offer you one free. It's to their advantage since if you start using the meter you will be using a lot of strips and thus making them money.

Oct 25, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Centre Code

Novarapidboi it's good but it's not right Very Happy

You got the acronym correct but the description wrong , they (me and others) are patient reps that take part in DAFNE research programmes and meet twice a year with the DAFNE management team. Some of us have also attended the HCP group meetings as well.
We also get to go to the DAFNE collaborative which is the annual meeting of everyone involved in DAFNE.
For any one interested there is a forum on this site and most of the DUAG are registered users on the site.
We are always interested in talking to anyone interested in becoming involved.

Oct 23, 2012

marke 657 posts

Topic: General Discussion / Centre Code

You can't get upgraded to DUAG that is something different. You can get upgraded to 'graduate' status with a centre code. To obtain a centre code you can either contact the DAFNE Centre to
obtain the current code or email us via the 'Contact DAFNE Online' link at the bottom of the page. Just tell us which centre you attended and we can contact DAFNE Central to get you verified
as a graduate and either upograde your account or give you a code to do it yourself.

Feb 7, 2013 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Diabulemia is becoming a growing problem There is no definite answers to this I'm afraid. I know people who lost a lot of weight, people who lost no weight and people who put on weight. People often put on weight just after the course because their insulin is more effective by virtual of the fact its more accurate to what your body needs were before the course there was too much or too little. However once you get past that you then have the flexibility to eat less and exercise more with the tools to manage these things so in theory losing weight is easier. I say in theory because losing weight never seems that easy

Jan 19, 2013 marke 657 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Greggs baguette sandwiches Hi, there is a link in the Carb Counter, Carb links on this site to a Greggs PDF of bagettes etc. It is from August2010 but still seems to work and I guess is still largely correct.

Jan 13, 2013 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses Alan, seems it is called MIMINT1E ( boy do they need a new marketing person ) but is as you describe. So what happened to choice in the NHS ? you can choose a hospital for an operation (supposedly ) but not your Diabetes education. A real shame but hopefully any Diabetes education is better than none. I hope the course goes well and your niece gets some real benefit out of it.

Jan 8, 2013 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / 5htp I ggogled it as well and noticed it mentioned an effect on the liver, since this is what secreets glucose I would guess its possible that 5htp does somehow increase blood glucose. However since its an 'over the counter' drug in the UK i.e not prescribed and maybe not licensed I'm not sure how much research into side effects would have been done.

Dec 23, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses hmm, interesting question I'm not sure if you can do DAFNE out of area since I think you may have to be referred. Carolin can probably answer this if she reads this post, if not I will ask DAFNE Central if there is a way of this happening. I suspected it was not DAFNE, I'm in East Kent and we have now lost DAFNE in favour of KATIE (??) so people here are in the same position.

Dec 23, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / retinopathy I think you should speak to your Diabetes team about it. I don't believe that reducing your BG quickly can cause retinopathy but I have no medical training. I appreciate that speaking to anyone will be difficult at the moment but you need expert advice rather than that of other Diabetics. I know its easy to say, but try not to worry about the letter too much. I have received one in the past and its scary because they don't provide any real advice with it. Personally I think they should speak to you in person and explain exactly what the letter means and answer the questions everyone immediately has when they get the letter. The important thing is it is picked up early and can then be monitored. The fact you have reduced your HBA1C is good it will reduce the chances of it worsening. My consultants opinion is things like this are almost inevitable if you have had Diabetes long term and is not necessarily a major problem.

Dec 19, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE Courses Alan, who told you that Medway were running DAFNE ? The reason I ask is they were a DAFNE Centre but dropped out, as did my centre East Kent. Unfortunately in Kent they like to invent their own education programmes so as well as modifying DESMOND and calling it DEREK, they have also 'dropped' DAFNE and come up with 'KATIE' ( which I'm still trying to get information on). It would not suprise me if Meday have also invented their own course, it should NOT be called DAFNE however since it is not. Let us know if you find out what they are doing....

Dec 17, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / UK carb counters try here https://play.google.com/store/search?q=DAFNE&c=apps and select the first in the list....

Dec 17, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / overnight BGs I don't think there is any problem with Graduates replying to threads in this forum if they give sensible answers like yours. I susepct a HCP response would be along the same lines. Although I would ask why you reduced your BI in the first place ?

Dec 17, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / UK carb counters I will check, the DAFNE iPhone app does this and I think the Android one does as well but I'm not sure. Both would have UK carb info becasue they are based on the UK DAFNE carb book.

Dec 13, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / ignorance I have to admit I would not expect my manager to know how to deal with Diabetes or any other condition, You didn't say if you work in a role that requires medical expertise. There are many many administration roles in the NHS that do not involve any medical training. I would not necessarily call this ignorance more lack of sensitivity, I take an interest in my staff and their issues but doing this is just a personal thing not a requirement of my role. To get the best out of your team you need to understand them however other methods are available and work in different scenarios. I don't think this is a diabetes issue more of a general issue and personally I always make sure people I am with understand my condition and what it means. they don't always remember but at least some of it goes in. Maybe you have already tried and this person is a lost cause, some are. I don't think we need legal support to make people understand medical conditions we just need people who WANT to understand.

Dec 13, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / exercise One point that neither of you have mentioned is that exercise can affect your BG's for at least 24 hours. Even though you have finnished the exercise your body still needs glucose to feed the muscles that have been used in the exercise. You need to consider this, however we cannot tell you exactly what the effect on you will be nor how long it will last sice we are all different. You should still exercise however as this will mean your body has less insulin 'resistance' generally and so works more efficiently, even T1's can resist insulin remember the big difference is we have to 'mainline' the insulin in So keeping up the exercise will help your overall levels AND you will be able to work out the effects it is having on your BG since you will get more practice at working it out !

Dec 3, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Sick day Hi, no need to apologise ! I agree with everything you say, but my hands are tied about the handbook. Like you and probably most graduates, the first I knew about the effects of sickness was from the DAFNE Course. If I could not get on the course then how would I have found out. It is frustrating but there are no easy answers. The e-petition raised by the DAFNE User Action Group is an attempt to change this by pushing for Structured Education for ALL Diabetics. This will be a news item as well as being in the forums soon, so people can sign up to it.

Dec 3, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Sick day Hi sorry but you cannot access the page unless you are a DAFNE Graduate, this is the rule by which we are allowed to have the handbook on the site. Its mainly because things like the sick day rules presume you are familiar with the rest of the course and so if you applied them without understanding the rest you may make things worse instead of better. The summary of them, is indeed your body needs insulin even if you don't eat especially when you are ill. Your liver will most likely release sugar to help you fight the infection, this will raise your Blood Sugar even if you don't eat. When your Blood Sugar exceeds certain levels you are likely to produce Ketones that if they are not treated can make you very ill. If you have not done DAFNE try to find out if your area offers any Diabetes Training or even ask your Diabetes team for advice. They should be able to help you with advice about what you shoudl do when you are ill.

Nov 27, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Site Development / Uploading Data (Re-visited) I said I was not going to bore people with techo-bablle Yes I am referring to REST. I think csv would be too complicated to implement on the server side in terms of validation. Its possible but I would be concerned about the damage that could be done with a csv file.....

Nov 26, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Site Development / Uploading Data (Re-visited) Hi, There IS a way of interfacing to the site directly to upload your data, I won't bore everyone with techno-babble so if you email us using the 'contact DAFNE Online' at the bottom of every page we can help. I one day hope to write a programme that allows lots of different meters to be interfaced to the site to upload data. It the moment I am bogged down in updating the Oz handbook and have not had chance to progress this at all. In the meantime I am more than happy to try to provide you with assistance to interface what you have written to the site.

Nov 22, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / How to upload diary from app to website Hi, You don't is the short answer If you have diary upload turned on all you need to do is add a new entry whilst you have data coverage ( this means you can browse to a web site on your phone, where the app is installed) and the app will automatically upload any entries that are not already on the site. Why doesn't it do this automatically anyway ? Well the problem is, it would need to keep checking all the time if it could connect to the site in the background, this would flatten the battery quicker and unnecessarily use up your data allowance. By only doing it when you have added an entry it knows there is at least one entry to upload and so it is worthwhile connecting to the site to do this. Whilst adding the new entry it checks if any others need to be uploaded and uploads them. If it still doesn't work when you add a new entry then you don't have data coverage or your user account details are wrong but this should cause an error message to appear.

Nov 15, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / snacking and corrections hi, sorry maybe that came across a bit wrong. What I meant was your control of Blood Sugar is not normal, as people we are no different from anyone else and DAFNE makes you able to eat 'normally' ( not what you want, thats not normal even for non-diabetics ). I guess with you its really your decision, the DAFNE 'rules' provide guidelines to what you should do however we are ALL different and react differently. It may be that the previous QA dose in your case has stopped having an effect it may not. There is also the fact that if you are like me when you are at 15 correction doses don't follow a linear pattern and you can pump in 5 units with little apparent effect. So maybe try experimenting with corrections but make sure you start off cautiously and make sure you consider any correction the next time you inject i.e if you correct at 11am then eat at 12, the previous insulin is still working....

Nov 12, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / snacking and corrections Hi Gemsa, sorry bad news you are no longer 'normal'. What happens to 'normal' people no longer applies to you. What Carolin was trying to say was say you eat at 6pm, inject 12 units and have 120carbs ( where you are on 1:1 and 10carbs = 1 unit). If you test 1 hour later your body is still digesting the food and your BG will be higher than normal. If its 14 and you decide to correct and give yourself 3 units to bring you back to 5 ( generalising a lot about the exact effect of insulin), you now potentially have 15 units working on 12CP's which may be too much and will force you too low. Your QA insulin will generally keep working for upto 5 hours, this is the danger of injecting between meals. In an ideal world our BG stays within range after meals, but its not an ideal world so we are trying to make the best we can of it. If your BG is back in range before the next meal then generally you are doing ok. You can try to get better control than this but is very difficult. You don't have the feedback mechanism that a normal person has. You cannot secreet insulin at just the right time to balance the sugar in your blood, All you can do is put it into your body fat and let it be absorbed into your system at roughly the rate required. This is not precise but its as good as it gets with technology as it is at the moment. Maybe one day this will change but not in the immediate future.

Nov 12, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: Questions ? / DAFNE view of Post-meal BG Testing I wouldn't say it is completely unnecessary, however I would also say it is not covered in the course because no research has been conducted to prove its benefits. Its nothing to do with test strip economy more to do with the don't tell you stuff that is not backed up by research, Thats the point of DAFNE it is all backed up by research. You will find loads of discussions on Diabetes sites regarding post-meal highs and their significance. However my personal view is most of it is not backed up by any real research just opinions. Whilst everyones opinion is valid, at the end of the day thats all it is. I have my own personal views but its not for me to tell you what is right or wrong. If there IS some solid research hopefully someone will respond with some links to it.

Oct 26, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / new meter Not strictly true. The DVLA are apparently saying that all Diabetics 'may' have their meter checked for all licenses. I would not be too worried though since this is apparently only in rare circumstances. Personally I think it is an intrusion into private information and none of their business. It would be interesting to see if any one challenges this if they try to withdraw anyones license based on this information. Firstly I don't see how they can demand access to it and secondly a meters readings could easily be fabricated and don't show severe hypo's. I don't know about you but if I was to need assistance for a hypo I'm not going to be using my blood meter am I ? I'm not going to know what the hell is going on. The whole idea is just bizzare and sums up the DVLA who are happy to sell your personal data to anyone who will pay but then think they can invade your privacy. Just say no

Oct 25, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / new contour next usb blood glucose monitor I would never pay for a meter! All meter companies make their money on the test strips. If you contact your DAFNE educator or local diabetes team they may well have a meter they can give you. If not contact Bayer and say you are interested in their meter, they are likely to offer you one free. It's to their advantage since if you start using the meter you will be using a lot of strips and thus making them money.

Oct 25, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Centre Code Novarapidboi it's good but it's not right You got the acronym correct but the description wrong , they (me and others) are patient reps that take part in DAFNE research programmes and meet twice a year with the DAFNE management team. Some of us have also attended the HCP group meetings as well. We also get to go to the DAFNE collaborative which is the annual meeting of everyone involved in DAFNE. For any one interested there is a forum on this site and most of the DUAG are registered users on the site. We are always interested in talking to anyone interested in becoming involved.

Oct 23, 2012 marke 657 posts	Topic: General Discussion / Centre Code You can't get upgraded to DUAG that is something different. You can get upgraded to 'graduate' status with a centre code. To obtain a centre code you can either contact the DAFNE Centre to obtain the current code or email us via the 'Contact DAFNE Online' link at the bottom of the page. Just tell us which centre you attended and we can contact DAFNE Central to get you verified as a graduate and either upograde your account or give you a code to do it yourself.