Talk show sheds light on diabetes and its victims

Drug Store News, Nov 19, 1990

Talk show sheds light on diabetes and its victims

SAN DIEGO - A first-of-its-kind weekly television talk show on diabetes that boasts guests and events as interesting as in any prime time talk show program debuted here last month. The half-hour show is aired every Sunday nationwide on the Lifetime cable station. The time is 9 a.m. on the East and West coasts, 8 a.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones.

The program addresses what persons in the industry see as a pressing need for education on diabetes; not only for patients but also for their families, and for medical professionals as well.

"It's as much fun and exciting as any other talk show on the air,' says the show's creator and host Pat Gallagher. A Type I diabetic since he was in high school, Gallagher is also continuing as host of a nationally-broadcast radio program which he launched two years ago.

The show is done before a live audience as in the Phil Donahue show. The first program featured an endocrinologist, and a segment in which people on the street were asked questions about diabetes. Also, Gallagher interviewed Tom Hallion, a major league baseball umpire and diabetic.

Another recent show featured a relay race which Gallagher and 11 other diabetics from ages 12 to 56 ran from the North Sea to the Irish Sea across England. Upcoming shows will have an interview with James Worthy, the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, whose father is a diabetic, and a feature on the Pima Indians of Phoenix, a group that has the highest incidence of diabetes in the world.

"This is groundbreaking for this category," said Cathy Shaw, marketing manager for professional services, Boehringer Mannheim, which is a sponsor along with Novo-Nordisk.