Renza Scibilia The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association 2013

Renza Scibilia

Renza Scibilia has lived with type 1 diabetes since April 1998. She is a well-known consumer advocate and peer leader for people with diabetes and promotes a patient-centred approach to healthcare, and in the development of diabetes information, resources and technologies. Since 2001, Renza has worked at Diabetes Australia – Vic. She manages the Community and Consumer Engagement Programs which provide support, information and peer connections for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and their families. Renza is the National Program Leader for Youth and Type 1 Diabetes programs at Diabetes Australia Ltd. Renza is an active and well-known member of the global diabetes online community (DOC). She co-founded the #OzDOC community which is specifically for people with diabetes living in Australia. She is well-versed in social media, its influence on people living with chronic health conditions and its application in diabetes peer support. Renza is the creator and author of her own diabetes blog which she uses as a platform to identify and write about issues of interest to people living with diabetes. The blog, Diabetogenic (www.diabetogenic.wordpress.com), has received awards for excellence in diabetes writing and is one of Australia’s most widely-read patient blogs. In 2012 and 2013 Renza was invited to attend and present at the European Diabetes Bloggers Summit at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting to discuss how diabetes online communications are being used to improve consumer engagement in Australia. In June 2013, Renza was an invited speaker at the Doctors 2.0 and You 2013 conference in Paris and presented on the challenges of addressing the needs of consumers, HCPs and industry when using social media platforms. In November 2012 as part of her work at DA–Vic, Renza coordinated and facilitated Australia’s first Diabetes Social Media Summit which brought together diabetes social media leaders. This highly successful event identified the key issues facing people with diabetes in Australia and provided strategies for how social media could be used to drive the agenda and promote the needs of individuals. Renza was the consumer representative for the NHMRC Type 1 Diabetes Guidelines working party.