Our organization is in the tail end of a 2-year agreement with Yukon Government, the central purpose of which is to provide Continuous Glucose Monitors to persons age 19-25.
Deliverable A1.0 requires we “Conduct evaluation with participating clients (including surveys and interviews, to be developed in partnership with YG)”. It has been brought to our attention that YG is intending to (or has already done so) hire an external evaluator. This appears to be a unilateral decision as we were not requested to amend the agreement or to provide input into the development of guidelines for an external evaluator.
It is difficult to understand how Yukon Government is not fully engaging our organization in this process. We have strongly advocated for Yukon Government to meet the needs of persons with Type 1 Diabetes through the inclusion of CGMs across all age groups, and these efforts are not self-serving. We advocate for CGM coverage because we know, through patient engagement, through active involvement in national and international CGM discussions, and through continued and thorough academic research on the matter, that CGMs greatly improve quality of life and provide the user with critical data. Our organization serves as a type of expert on this field, and not only is our exclusion in the evaluation seemingly an oversight, but it is wasteful of public dollars. We possess the data that would give Yukon Government a leg up in this decision-making process, and we are happy to provide this to you without cost. I trust that Yukon Government does not view advocacy efforts of volunteer experts in this field as bias, but instead views this as a tremendous local resource.
We request that our organization is consulted fully in not only the development of an external evaluator contract, but that we are provided ample opportunity to provide fulsome data in the evaluation process. Alternatively, we request that Yukon Government recognize the capacities and knowledge base of our organization and stick to the original agreement, having the Yukon T1D Support Network co-evaluate the CGM pilot project, in partnership with Yukon Government.
I appreciate your time and attention to this matter.
The Yukon T1D Support Network