← Diabetes Connections | Type 1 Diabetes
Diabetes Connections | Type 1 Diabetes
From Patient to Problem-Solver: The Story Behind the Glucose Projector
00:26:57
The glucose projector is a simple but powerful idea that can only come from someone who lives with type 1 – and sleeps with it! John DeLeo created a digital readout of CGM data that displays the number, and the time, right on the ceiling. John was...
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- [00:01]
A
Your experiences in diabetes can drive breakthroughs that improve lives. Join Thriveable's Research panel and contribute directly to the future of diabetes care. You'll be compensated for sharing your valuable insights with trusted healthcare organizations. Adults with diabetes and caregivers of children with diabetes are eligible to join their patient panel and they will pay you. Learn more Go to Thriveable app Stacy or or check out the link in the Show Notes. Are you a healthcare professional? You can join the HCP research community again. Go to the Show Notes and check out the Thriveable link. Take an easy step to make sure your voice is heard this week on Diabetes Connections. A simple but powerful idea that can only come from someone who lives with Type one and so sleeps with it. John Deleo created a glucose projector. This is a digital readout of your CGM data that displays the number and the time right on the ceiling. John was diagnosed with type one in his 40s. We're going to talk about his diagnosis, what led him to this invention, the long road of bringing it to market, and more. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your healthcare provider. Welcome to another week of Diabetes Connections. I'm your host, Stacey Sims. You know, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. Before we jump in this week, I just have to give you a really nice update. About a week and a half ago, we had our Mom's Night out event in Minneapolis, and one of the things we do at all of these events is what I call check inside. This is where attendees have a chance to sit down with a diabetes educator or expert and talk about what's on their minds to check in about diabetes. They're not medical appointments. There's no hipaa. They are out in the open. But yeah, we all need reassurance and these have been really popular and very successful. And in Minneapolis, one of our check in educators was Alison Nimlos. If you follow Allison on social media and I'll link her up in the Show Notes, she goes by the diabetic therapist on Instagram. She is the organizer of the Mental Health and Diabetes Conference. Among many other things, she was a blogger way back in the day, but if you follow her, you know she was very, very pregnant at the time of Mom's Night Out Minneapolis. I had checked in with her, no pun intended, a couple of times over the summer. She said, no, we're good. It's early enough. We got plenty of time. Well, lo and behold, two days after the event, she posted on Instagram, like, see on the flip side, I'm in the hospital and she had her baby. It looks like everybody is doing great, very healthy and happy and you can follow her, as I said, and she'll tell the whole story. But congratulations to Alison and her entire family and phew, we got it in under the wire. Mom's Night Out Phoenix is coming up. That's our next Mom's Night out event. This event is for Women with type 1 as well as moms of kids with diabetes. That is coming up October 24th and 25th. There is still time to register and you can use the promo code MNOC30 to save big. You will save 30% with that promo code. So please join us in Phoenix. Our keynote speaker is Manny Hernandez. I'm so looking forward to this. I've known him for a very long time, as have many of you in the diabetes community. He is currently the CEO of the Diabetes Link and he's going to share more about that and share his story at the event. So I really hope you can join us. I met this week's guest many years ago. I feel like John deleo and I have been next to each other at Friends for Life, you know, the big conference that happens every year in July and in Orlando. We've been next to each other as part of the vendor fair quite often. So I've gotten to know him. I've gotten to follow the glucose projector sort of from concept to build and hear the issues of how difficult it is to bring something like this to market to now launch, it is out in the marketplace. And while I'm hesitant to do product type episodes because there are a lot of really wonderful products out there and there's so many clever people in the diabetes community who invent them, but we're not doing a commercial here. I really feel like John's story is so worth telling. As you heard, he was diagnosed as an older adult. He's got a great story, he's got a lot of passion and I'm really excited to bring you this conversation. All right, my talk with John Dileo right after this. I've been talking about integration for years and it's just been wonderful to see it all happening. Dexcom G6 is part of Tandem Diabetes Control IQ system and part of the Omnipod 5 system. My son has been using Control IQ for more than four years now. These systems are really amazing. He sleeps better and the system has his back when he doesn't get his meal bolus exactly right as A mom. I will never stop worrying, but I worry a lot less. We all just think about diabetes less, which is really amazing. Learn more. Go to diabetes-connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. John, welcome to Diabetes Connections. It is great to finally do this. I'm so glad to have you on the show. How are you today?
- [05:11]
B
Doing great, Stacy. Good to be on here too. After like three and a half, four years of meeting you at Friends for Life, here we are. Thank you for having me.
- [05:20]
A
You got it. It has been a journey. It's been a journey. Just in the past 20 minutes when I couldn't figure out my audio problems and it turned out it was simply my headphones had died. So a little behind the scenes there. But I did look when we were communicating today and confirming the interview, I was pulling up old email with you and you really have been at this a while. Do you mind? I want to talk about your journey with type one. You live with type one, but start off by telling, like, what was the idea here for the clock? How did this come to be?
- [05:48]
B
Well, I've been a diabetic for like 20 years and before Dex comes, I would get a lot of hypoglycemia at night and it would wake me up and it would be really bad. I'd have to prick my finger, check my blood sugar, have my wife go get me orange juice or whatever. So along came Dexcom and then the app. And I'm a type A person anyway, so I always slept with a projector clock so I can see the time of day. Well, since I got a Dexcom and my hypoglycemic events are not as often, but when I toss and turn, I want to know what they are. I just got to know. I don't want to go low. That's the worst feeling ever. So I would reach for my cell phone, flick it on, see my reading, go back to bed. But my wife couldn't see what my reading was. And as you know from Benny, you could be 98 right now and 15 minutes later you could be 88, 78, 68. So I wanted an easy way to track it overnight. So one morning I woke up at 3 o' clock and I saw the time of day and I'm like, why can't I see my glucose value on the ceiling without reaching for my phone? So that morning I told my wife, I said, I'm going to go buy one. So I went to buy one and it didn't exist. So I Googled naturally Amazon. I Googled Google. I looked everywhere and it didn't exist. So I said, well, this can't be hard. I'm just going to take my glucose clock and get somebody to. Because I can't do it. I'm not tech savvy at all. I had to pay people to do everything for me. And that was another issue because try to, you know, engineers think differently and trying to tell them what a hypoglycemia event is that doesn't have anybody related to them, a diabetic was hard.
- [07:41]
A
Yeah.
- [07:42]
B
Just explaining the disease and stuff. So it took me almost four years from idea to market.
- [07:51]
A
Why don't we explain exactly what it is? Because I think, as you say, people are actually, I'm not sure if people are familiar with what even a clock projector is, because my son had one, just a regular clock projector. And I thought it was kind of silly when he bought it. But we didn't let them have their phones in the room in the bedroom when they were growing up. So this was perfect. IT project. It literally just projected the time of day or night on the ceiling in. And his was in red letters so he could just see it on the ceiling, see it on the wall, see it wherever you want it. And so you're doing the same thing, but with CGM numbers. Got that right.
- [08:24]
B
It flashes between the time of day, your current reading and then your trend on the ceiling of the wall. It's fully adjustable so you can like me and my wife, I put it above me at the right where the base the crown mode and is so she doesn't have to reach over my body to see it on the nightstand. And you can adjust it for whatever you want. Five seconds for your time. Five seconds. Five seconds or whatever seconds you want. So I have mine on five seconds current reading and then one second for the other two. Because, you know, like at 2 o' clock in the morning and you barely open your eye and you just miss the current reading part of it. And you got to wait five seconds. That's an eternity. So. So you can adjust it and it. It shows on the ceiling or the wall. Nice red color. So it's not intrusive to you. It's not bright, it doesn't shine in your eyes or anything like that.
- [09:23]
A
Yeah. When you were talking about engineers helping you out with this, you built it from scratch with them.
- [09:28]
B
Well, they took the shell and then they had to build the firmware to work with the two cjams it works with. It's a Dexcom 6 and 7 and Libre, 2 and 3 pluses. It's not on the market yet. Forever since and all the other ones because like I said, I've been doing this almost four years and even today the market for Dexcom and Libre is probably 90 to 95%. So I didn't even attempt to link with them yet.
- [09:58]
A
Before we go too much further into the projector and I want to hear people's reactions because I know you talked to a lot of people this year, tell us your story. You say you were diagnosed 20 years ago. So John, you're very young looking, but you were diagnosed as an adult.
- [10:11]
B
As an adult, I was diagnosed in 2006. So I was 46 years old. I had type one in my family, but I go way back to high school. I always had lows in seventh period in high school because I had sixth period was physical education. And back then, I mean we, we did push ups, sit ups, we played football. So when I went to the seventh period, I was always shaky and low. And I don't recall what happened at the doctors, but I always remember going to the doctor's office and I got a note from the doctor that I could have candy in class for seventh period. So I was the only guy I remember, I went to All Boys Catholic High school and I was the only boy in class I remember who could carry around candy and legitimately eat it. So then years later, my mom's mother had diabetes, but she passed away like in the early 70s. So I went on about my life and I would get lows, but I wouldn't think of it. I just knew I'd have to eat candy or something. And then I got into the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmaceutical sales rep and I started calling on all these doctors and I kind of knew what diabetes was because I did some courses on it. Well, one day I was in the best shape of my life too. I exercised by Psycho back then like 100 miles a month. So it just, it didn't really just hit me. But I woke up one Monday morning thirsty and I had to work with my manager in the field that day. And she even commented, God, John, you're drinking a lot. I said, I know, but I didn't associate it with diabetes until like two days later when you couldn't keep me out of the bathroom. And then I did a launch that day for some of the doctors. I called on and I, I've caught on those guys forever. And I said, you know, I think I got diabetes. And they said, why you say that? And I told them so they had their nurse prick my finger. And she. When she did it, she ran out the room right away. And I'm like, where are you going? And I like, oh, yeah. And I was really high, and then they just started throwing all these samples on me, Actos and all that. Take this, take this, take this. Go see your normal doctors. So then I saw him, and I was put on the metformins and the glyburides.
- [12:37]
A
And so they just immediately said, type 2.
- [12:39]
B
2. Type 2. And they did the blood test for your insulin output from your pancreas. And I still had insulin, but just not enough. Well, eventually my pancreas died and the doctor came in probably about. I've been on insulin pumps about maybe about eight, six or seven years now.
- [13:00]
A
Yeah.
- [13:01]
B
So I became a tight one when I was probably about 58. I'm 65 now.
- [13:07]
A
Wow. Do you have Lotta. Have they talked to you about that?
- [13:09]
B
I asked my doctor that from your podcast I listened to before I even invented this projector. I listened to you, I listened to a bunch of others, and I went to my doctor, my endo, and I said, do you think I have Lada? And she says, no way.
- [13:27]
A
Really?
- [13:27]
B
I don't. I don't know. But she says, I don't.
- [13:30]
A
I didn't listen. The important thing is that you're getting good care and you're feeling good, right? That's excellent. And, John, I really should point out.
- [13:38]
B
Where do you live outside of New Orleans, Louisiana? Yeah.
- [13:42]
A
I could listen to you talk all day. I love it.
- [13:44]
B
Well, I moved here when I was 8, but I was actually born in Groton, Connecticut. My dad was a Navy man. But everybody who I meet all over the country think I'm either from Brooklyn or Boston.
- [13:59]
A
Okay, John, who are you meeting who thinks you are from Brooklyn? Well, like, hysterical.
- [14:06]
B
Last week, I was just in Philadelphia for my work, and somebody asked me the same thing. Where are you from? Brooklyn. I'm like, nope.
- [14:14]
A
As a person whose whole family is from Brooklyn, that made my day. That is fantastic. I love it. I just, you know, wanted to get that out in case people were curious, because I think a New Orleans accent is one that people obviously do not recognize. My daughter went to school in New Orleans, and we've been really lucky to spend some time there, so it's very cool. And I know we laughed about this at Friends for Life. And I'm sure people always ask you where to eat and what restaurants to go to.
- [14:38]
B
Oh, all the time. And you know what? I Just say Google it. I know there's so many of them that I've never heard of and that are fantastic restaurants.
- [14:47]
A
So getting back to the Clock projector, you know, it's amazing to me how many people in the community see a need like you did and invent something, create something, build something to help others. What was the reaction like? Because I remember at Friends for Life a couple of years ago when you had the prototype, I gotta tell you, I was wondering, are people going to see the need like you did, even.
- [15:09]
B
Way back with the prototype? Fantastic. I mean they, I had mothers saying, I'm going to pray for you. Father's fist bumping me, telling me I'm going to pray for you. People saying, they're following me, they're going to follow me. And then this Friends for Life July, when I finally had product, I had six several people who had been to all the Friends for Life watch following my journey, saying, I want to buy one. I'm like, oh, you do? And yeah, I've been following you for three years. So the, you know, the mothers love it, the spouses love it because it's, it's a need overnight and you don't have to reach for a phone, you don't have to look at your pump, pull your pump out of your pajamas or wherever your pumps laying and look at the screen and put it back. It's just a very convenient way I call it, with the blink of an eye. You open your eye, there's your glucose value and you close it and you go back to bed. Sleep.
- [16:04]
A
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, over the last, I don't know how many years, it's interesting. You know, Benny got his CGM when he was nine years old in 2013 and no share for a couple years after that just because of the timeline of Dexcom. And I remember thinking, why do I need to look at this thing when it's not alarming? You know, our experience with Dexcom is very different than people who started using it while SHARE was already around. And it's been really interesting to see over the last couple of years the proliferation and acceptance of products like this one that are not alarm centered. Right. I mean, as a person with type one yourself, what do you say when people kind of bring that up like, well, I just wait for the alarm.
- [16:45]
B
Well, they could sleep through the alarm. My wife used to nudge me, john, John, is that your alarm going off? And I'd like, yes, yes it is. And I know people who would sleep like my neighbor down the Street. Her daughter got diagnosed as type one at 12 and she would sleep with her iPad on with sugar mate to follow her daughter's reading. She's. And I approached her when I came up with this idea and she says, oh, my God. I look at Morgan's numbers all night long. There's people that are saying, oh, no, it's overload. I don't want to know every minute or every five minutes. And then there's some, you know, especially the mothers with the type one children who are, you know, just. It's hard enough, you know, the stress overnight of a low to not worry about it. So I just make it convenient for those who want to check.
- [17:35]
A
Yeah, well, and I think too, my feeling is that I look at my phone way too much. I'm the kind of person that if I wake up in the middle of the night and I would, like, check Benny's blood sugar, you know, back in the day, I don't follow him anymore, which is weird. But back in the day, even if I woke up with no alarm, I would like, oh, I'm going to check. But then my phone's bright, it's in my face, and I'm on Facebook or I'm going to check the weather for the next day. And then suddenly it's half an hour later and I'm still looking at my phone. I'm just one of those people that I need to put my phone down and I can't sometimes. So I definitely can see the need here. I'm just really curious as again, as a person with Type one, you don't always use just the alarms, even before you had this clock projector. But you're not staying up all night to look at your numbers either, right? It's gotta be a balance, right? Back to our conversation. But first, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Omnipod. Did you hear the pod drop? Did you know all the sounds used to make that song come from a sight? Change with the Omnipod 5 automated insulin delivery system. Pretty cool, huh? With Omnipod 5, pump site changes are simple. The pod lasts up to three days, 72 hours. And to change it, you just fill up the pod with insulin, place it on your body, tap a few buttons in the Omnipod 5 app, and you're ready to go. There's no tubing to prime like with traditional insulin pumps, and it's virtually pain free, so you never have to see or handle the insertion needle. Want to try Omnipod 5 for yourself? Request a free Omnipod 5 starter kit today by visiting omnipod.com diabetesconnections Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary.
- [19:18]
B
Oh, yeah, I just. Oh, whenever I toss and turn or I'm elderly, I gotta get up and use the bathroom once, maybe same as my wife or for some reason. But no, I'm not, I'm not addicted to it. Yeah, it's just a convenient way to see it, you know, two or three times during the night for your spouse, for you, for your mother, a loved one. You can follow anybody, anywhere in the world. So it's just a convenient way to see your glucose. Hopefully before the alarm goes off and wakes you up, you could catch that low, see the trends, catch it before you see it without fumbling for your phone, seeing I'm like you like if I go to pick up my phone and swipe it on and there's some breaking news, well, I'm going to that. Then I forgot why I opened my phone in the first place.
- [20:10]
A
Did you discover anything along the way as you had these guys building the phone, as you were creating this and building it out and bringing it to market, did anything substantial change along the way? Did you learn anything along the way that that made the, the end product different?
- [20:24]
B
Not really, other than it was difficult to get it to connect to the CGMs. That's what took the longest to get it on the market was connecting the Dexcom Libre was quite easy. But Dexcom was really hard and it took probably a year just to figure out how to connect the dexcoms. I don't know what you like the API API? Yep. And get it to work properly. It connects by Bluetooth. You have to have WI FI to connect it to your router. Then you use the WI FI on your phone to connect the projector to the setup page. And so long as you enter your router name password correctly and same as your CGM password and username correctly, it will connect.
- [21:16]
A
You've mentioned a couple times, kind of joking like you're a senior citizen, you know, you're older. There is a brand new group and I don't even know when we're talking about this. It has just gone live. So by the time the episode comes out, maybe it'll get more publicity. But it's a group focusing on type 1 diabetes and aging. I believe it's called T1D2 100 and I think this is fantastic. I want to work with them and do more. I think it's absolutely incredible. You've mentioned a couple times like, oh, I'm a Senior citizen. You know, I was diagnosed older and that's all true, but you're still a pretty young man, comparatively speaking. Looking ahead, would a group like that be exciting to you? Are you concerned? Do you have those kind of worries about aging with type one?
- [21:55]
B
Well, I always tell my endocrinologist, she always tells me, now, don't worry about a 1C. Focus on time and range. And I'm usually around 70 to 80% in range. I exercise all the time. You know, I still psycho. I'm not overweight. I don't eat a lot of junk food. Anyway, my mom passed away in 93, my dad passed away in 92. So I hope to, you know, I'm not looking at the end of the tunnel right now. I'm just living my life.
- [22:29]
A
That's great. Do you mind if I ask, when you do cycle, what do you do for diabetes? Do you have any tips or tricks or anything? I mean, obviously you can tell your number with Dexcom, but do you have any tips or tricks, anything you would recommend? I know everybody's different.
- [22:42]
B
Well, I do wear my Apple watch with the dexcom app there, and it's always on. I always ride with the same buddy of mine and he's well familiar with my diabetes, luckily. And I make sure my carbs are in range and then I put it on activity before I leave, like a half hour before I leave. And I carry glucose in my, you know, my cycling pocket in the back. And I do monitor it and you know, you can, I can feel it because, coming and, and, and then I'll, I'll glance at my watch and if I'm starting to two hours down, then I'll take a gummy or something. But usually I can make my hour, hour and a half ride without worrying about it going low.
- [23:23]
A
That's great. Wow. Hour and a half. Hour and a half. I love it. Why do you like cycling?
- [23:27]
B
I've always been a cyclist. From the time I was eight years old, I had a bike and I would ride it. I love bicycles. Always had a bike. I got. Grew it out. Out that one. I got a new one. It kept going and going and then I just find it like it's just stress free. You get on a bike and, and you know, you see things because I used to go to the club and, and do cycling, spinning class and all, and in the dark room with other sweaty people. So I'm out in the open, I get fresh air. I love it.
- [24:02]
A
That's fantastic. All right, give us the details. I'll Give you the floor to pitch the glucose projector clock price. How do people get it all that stuff?
- [24:09]
B
Price is $99 plus shipping in the USA. And naturally, I ship all over the world, which has surprised me. I've sold in almost every country so far. Glucose projector.com is where you can buy it. And it's just me. I'm not a Dexcom or a Libre. It's. I'm the only one in the company. Me, myself and I. So be patient. I ship them basically the day of. Really. I mean, I'm sitting here. If I get an order, I print the packaging label, the shipping label, and I stick it in my box for the mailman.
- [24:43]
A
I love it. Yeah, you know, it's funny, people. I'm with you when I sell my own books too. So people are always thinking, oh, you're a big company. You have. They're always surprised if they get you on an email. It's just us. We're doing the best we can.
- [24:55]
B
Right?
- [24:57]
A
I love it. Well, John, thank you so much for joining me. I'm so glad we got to connect years ago and that we finally got to do this podcast episode. I wish you all the best. I really appreciate what you're doing. Thank you. Yeah, keep me posted. Thanks for being here.
- [25:10]
B
Appreciate it. Thank you.
- [25:16]
A
More information about John and the glucose projector over@diabetes-connections.com you can also use the promo code Stacy to save to get a discount on the glucose projector. I'm not an affiliate. I'm not going to make any money if you use that promo code. We're just trying to keep it easy. S, T, A, C E y@the glucoseprojector.com website. As predicted, September flying by. I mean, it's gone. I feel like I blinked. Wasn't it Labor Day two seconds ago? But I knew this was going to happen. Like many of you. September, October, November, September. Such busy months, but all good stuff. Always excited about it. A lot more to come. For this year we have Mom's Night Out, Phoenix. We've got Club 1921 happening in November in Charlotte. And we will be announcing many more of those events next year. But the Moms Night out events for 2026 are on the website, so please go check it out. Nashville, D.C. detroit and Seattle. You can sign up to get city specific alerts and announcements over@diabetes-connections.com. thank you to my editor, John Buchenis from Audio Editing Solutions, who is totally understanding even when I'm getting him the episodes later and later. Thank you John. You already. Prince. I appreciate you. I'm going to try to do better. But, you know, after 10 years, we know. We know how it goes. And thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Sims. I'll see you back here soon. Until then, be kind to yourself. Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Sims Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged.