Diversity and inclusion progress at Tidepool

We are at an inflection point in the history of Tidepool, and, I also believe, as humans.

As Tidepoolers, we have a unique opportunity to make a real difference — to catalyze genuine, impactful change in the diabetes community. We’ve done it before, and I fully expect that we’re going to do it again.

As humans, we have a responsibility to make this impact on the broadest, most equitable scale possible. As Tidepoolers, we have a responsibility to be radically transparent about where we are, to set a meaningful target for where we want to be, then to take meaningful action that gets us there.

So I’d like to spend a little time talking about our mission, our goal, and some of the actions we are taking in order to get us there. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Broad and equitable access — Measure where we are, set a target, take action to get there

I believe that the biggest thing we can do as a company to fulfil our mission is to make sure that the software we build is available and accessible to the broadest possible population. That’s easy to say, and fortunately, it’s also easy to measure.

Going forward, we’re going to gather, and openly publish aggregate statistics about the demographics of the population who is using our software.

That of course means we need to ask our users. I’ll be asking our product, design, and development teams to design and add demographic questions to our new user onboarding process, both for our existing products, and for Tidepool Loop. Some of that work has already been done.

And as we always do, we’ll be transparent with our users and let them know why we are asking for this information. Fortunately, there’s a great answer:

Our mission — our goal — is to serve the broadest possible population of users. Not just privileged people with great insurance — everyone.

Shawn, from our QA team, leading a discussion about accessibility in our design system.

So what will our target be? What will success look like? What does “done” look like?

Well, the first order of business is to know where we are in terms of our user demographics. We just don’t know right now, and that’s a problem. We’re going to fix that.

We do know that the single mom on Medicare whose kid was just diagnosed with diabetes is probably not being offered the use of Tidepool, much less a Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitor) or an Omnipod insulin pump. And even if she were, she may not have a computer at home that would make Tidepool helpful to her.

We also know that farm workers on Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) with diabetes are being given a blood glucose meter that may or may not work with Tidepool. Their clinic may not even be aware that Tidepool is available to them for free. We can and must do better here, too.

When we’ve done our jobs, underrepresented communities — the people with diabetes who need it most — will have the same equitable access to great technology and healthcare as privileged people. And we will have the data to prove it.

I look forward to sharing more about our efforts to make our software available and accessible to the broadest possible population. I know you all will help hold us accountable to this effort.

Among others, Amanda from our Product team and Christopher from our Marketing team are working to grow access and adoption of our software across as many clinics and health systems as possible.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Representing the people we intend to serve, and fighting the default of exclusion

While we expand our role as humans to address inequities in access to great healthcare, we must also double down in our efforts to build a team of diverse voices and perspectives — one that represents the people we intend to serve. These goals are not mutually exclusive.

There are three immediate areas for Tidepool to focus on: recruiting, our apprenticeship program, and board composition. For the moment, I’m going to focus on the composition of our Board of Directors.

At our upcoming board meeting on Monday we’ll be discussing board composition. It’s important to me that we be intentional about having a board that is more representative of the people we serve. l will propose we focus on diversifying in terms of race and gender, and seeking those who deeply understand healthcare access and equity issues and who can help guide us to make sure our practices and policies will lead us in supporting our broadened mission.

Melissa L. Melissa M., and Kelly from our Marketing and Product teams are working to make our training materials and documentation straight-forward and accessible.

Operating outside of our comfort zone

Every year, we hold 2 onsite meetings where we dive into important topics. This year we are doing our first onsite virtually due to the pandemic. As part of our onsite activities over the next few weeks, we are going to venture outside our collective comfort zones. We’ll continue our work with the team at ReadySet around building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture at Tidepool. We’ll also be partnering with Jaya Associates, to help us master techniques for having effective critical conversations.

As part of taking time to learn, and grow, we at Tidepool are making June 19th an official paid holiday. This day, also known as Juneteenth in the United States, is a day to recognize the Emancipation of the last remaining enslaved Africans in the Confederacy.

I’ve asked the Tidepool team to not use the Juneteenth time to catch up on yard work, or have a barbeque with the family. I want our team members to turn the day into an opportunity to celebrate, learn, reflect, and take action. This is a day to do something outside of our comfort zone — learn more about Black history in America, read books, watch films or listen to podcasts about racial disparities and injustice, and how to be an anti-racist; to attend a #BlackLivesMatter rally, or volunteer at an inner-city school; to do something to make the world a better place.

James and Lennart from our Backend Engineering team help ensure our software is stable and reliable.

In closing…

Tidepool was formed in 2013. In fact, our seven year anniversary, the day we were recognized by the state of California, was May 9, 2013. So as we begin our eighth year, I want to personally thank our community for being on this journey with me and the rest of the Tidepool team. Thank you for putting your trust in us and for your support and belief in our mission.

As one of my mentors used to say: “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” Well, I can tell you with certainty that what Tidepool is doing is not easy, and that is why no one else is doing it.

No one else is building an interoperable closed loop system.

No one else is partnering with and bringing together device companies that historically have been fierce competitors.

No one else is helping the FDA revolutionize how they evaluate software.

No one else is radically transparent and willing to share their company’s inner workings, openly.

We have already made a huge difference, and we are just getting started.

Thanks.

This is Tidepool.