Category: News & Media

A Message From Dr. Elliott: I’m writing to share the momentous news that earlier today BC Pharmacare announced coverage of continuous glucose monitors, otherwise known as CGM. BC will thus join the Yukon territory, Quebec and Saskatchewan.  I trust that the other provinces & territories will quickly follow suit so that all Canadians can benefit […]

Dr. Elliott and the entire staff at BC Diabetes are delighted to report that COVID-19 vaccines are being made available to all British Columbians who are taking insulin. On Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021, the Government of British Columbia put out a statement saying that people who were “clinically extremely vulnerable” were now eligible to receive […]

Big news today for the 200,000 British Columbians living with Type 2 diabetes who are overweight or who have a history of heart attack or stroke.  Today BC Pharmacare announced coverage of semaglutide (“Ozempic”), a once-a-week shot, for individuals living with Type 2 diabetes on oral medication alone (metformin & glyburide) or on insulin plus […]

The three hottest words in Type 1 diabetes these days are “loop”, “looper” & “looping”.  These refer to the groundbreaking revolutionary open source software implementation of the Artificial Pancreas, the technological cure of Type 1 diabetes.  Loopers are Type 1s who use the Loop app running on an iPhone to control their insulin pump based […]

BCDiabetes is committed to providing the highest quality diabetes care to all British Columbians. With the situation involving novel coronavirus (COVID-19) changing quickly, we reassure you that we are continuing to operate and provide services, while monitoring recommendations from the US CDC and Health Canada. However, we are also mindful of concerns that you might […]

On February 1, 2019, the prestigious medical journal the Lancet published a meta-analysis examining potential benefits the statin and class of medication. The article confirmed and extended the powerful evidence for benefit for the use of statins in people with a previous history of heart disease, stroke and for those with diabetes.  It showed that […]

Yesterday Health Canada issued a warning around HCTZ (hydrochlorothiazide), a commonly used diuretic blood pressure lowering medication: The warning was issued because of new evidence suggesting a 4-fold increased risk of non-melanoma skin cancer in individuals who have taken HCTZ for 3+ years. Non-melanoma skin cancer is made up of  basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) & […]

I began specialist diabetes practice in 1992 – with it began my lifetime mission to optimize care and improve outcomes for every British Columbian living with diabetes.  As my staff grew I realized that everything depended on teamwork – thus in 2005 was born BCDiabetes.   BCDiabetes, with its dedicated staff of 14, is now […]

2018-Oct-10 saw Health Canada approve the Medtronic 670G insulin pump, the first of its kind in Canada to support closed-loop functionality for basal insulin.  This innovation, the first step towards an artificial pancreas, is welcome news for every individual with diabetes who is an intensive insulin user (either a pumper or taking multiple daily shots). […]

Kudos to the BC NDP government for extending insulin pump coverage to every British Columbian living with diabetes requiring intensive insulin therapy (effectively all those with Type 1 diabetes and those with Type 2 diabetes taking two different kinds of insulin).  On Tuesday the Minister of Health, Adrian Dix (who has Type 1 diabetes himself […]