“With or without diabetes, there’s nothing you can’t be,” says German field hockey Olympic champion and orthopaedic surgeon Carsten Fischer. But there was a time when Carsten – ...
Chronic Conditions
22nd January 2021
“With or without diabetes, there’s nothing you can’t be,” says German field hockey Olympic champion and orthopaedic surgeon Carsten Fischer. But there was a time when Carsten – nicknamed The Man With the Hammer for his ferocious penalty corners – ...
26th November 2020
Andy Braybrook’s life changed after a near-fatal accident left him permanently paralysed. Three years after his road collision, he is now back on the road and setting his sights even higher. Andy’s story started on the first fine ...
5th March 2020
Mike Rolls says his golf game is stronger as a bilateral amputee than it ever was when he had both his legs. The 37-year-old Australian has come a long way since a deadly infection called meningococcal septicaemia changed the trajectory ...
26th February 2020
Lara Chappell was in complete shock when her one-year-old son Pierre was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome. She’d been expressing concerns to multiple health professionals about her baby’s delayed development from the time he ...
28th January 2020
One phone call from her daughter’s school changed Csilla’s life forever. “The school said that my little girl was feeling ill, so I quickly finished a couple of things at work and rushed to the doctor with my ...
3rd December 2019
Ami Ireland thought her hearing difficulties were just the remnants of a cold. At the time, she didn’t know this was the first in a series of symptoms that would leave her with permanent disabilities and change her life ...
28th November 2019
On World AIDS Day, author and Emmy Award winning AIDS activist Rae Lewis-Thornton talks about her decades-long journey with the disease and how medtech innovations have supported her. “I believe I was infected with HIV in 1983,” says Rae. “In the ...
11th October 2019
On World Obesity Day, Stefanie Wirtz opens up about her personal struggle with obesity and the turning point that led her to undergo bariatric surgery. “I’ve lived with obesity since childhood, and like most of those affected, I’ve ...
18th September 2019
As we stride into September marking a new Sickle Cell Awareness Month, Jemela Williams discusses the disease she’s lived with her whole life and shares her hopes for a future world that better understands it. When Jemela was just ...
9th July 2019
After being hooked up to an antibiotics drip in hospital for three weeks, David John Watson had had enough. However, the life-threatening blood poisoning that he’d developed meant another few weeks of intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatment was necessary. It ...
10th May 2019
Kim Opszala thought her eczema had returned when a rash appeared on her face, but it was a disease called lupus. She’d been travelling around Australia before starting university in 2005/06 and upon her return Kim noticed the butterfly-shaped rash ...
5th April 2019
British author and disability advocate Alice Barker is keen to express her gratitude for the healthcare and medtech “that have enabled me to lead a rich and blessed life.” As someone who has relied heavily on specialised medical care and ...
28th February 2019
Gunnar Esiason just celebrated a major milestone: his good health. When you have cystic fibrosis (CF) – a rare genetic disease that creates a build-up of thick sticky mucus in the lungs, digestive system and other organs that can lead to ...
20th November 2018
You don’t usually come across a triathlete with severe lung disease, but Russell Winwood is great at busting stereotypes. The Australian blogger has come a long way since being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in 2011, which left ...
11th October 2018
Marina Biglia’s obesity story began with denial, moved to acceptance, and eventually – with the help of bariatric surgery – led to recovery. Now she’s a role model and champion for others who are traveling down the same challenging path. ...
4th October 2018
Pascal has been managing kidney disease for his entire adult life. But that doesn’t stop him from pursuing his passion for caravanning and kite surfing. “As a physicist, I’ve always been driven by curiosity. But in order to ...
7th June 2018
With its 6 million obese people, or 10% of the population, Italy is one of the countries with the largest number of people who are at least 40% overweight. Obesity is a hazardous situation for one’s health, which should be addressed with ...
5th June 2018
Torsten Kraft (34) is a carpenter and is passionate about his craft. In his free time he goes hiking with his girlfriend, “likes to drive a lot” and reads “everything from fantasy to who-dun-its to science fiction”. He has been incontinent ...
1st May 2018
For people living with severe asthma, daily tasks can be a real challenge. Could ‘smart inhalers’ empower patients by providing information on what triggers asthma attacks? ‘Simple things like walking upstairs can be very difficult,’ says Toni Latimer-Simpson who has ...
23rd March 2018
Ten years ago, Londoner Steve Bradley was shocked to find out that he was infected with tuberculosis (TB) following a lengthy period of testing and misdiagnosis. “Nobody even thought it could be TB,” the former TV project engineer tells This ...
8th March 2018
Carol Armitage knew that one day her best friend Helen Byrne would need a kidney transplant. When the time came, she was ready. “Right from the very start in 2000 when Helen was diagnosed with kidney disease, I’d go with ...
5th January 2018
Year-end is often a time for reflection and expressing gratitude. For Karen Phillips, the customised tracheostomy tube that allows her son Michael to breathe is at the top of her list of things to be thankful for. Michael was nine ...
3rd August 2017
Ulf Lohmann was frustrated that chronic high blood pressure had taken over his life. Then doctors offered him an innovative new treatment that completely turned things around. For years Ulf was taking pills that didn’t seem to have any ...
19th June 2017
“I think Sickle Cell is misunderstood because it's not a visible condition and it affects everyone differently,” says Chantelle Pierre, who was diagnosed with the genetic blood disorder at six months old as part of a routine blood test. “People ...
22nd May 2017
21 years ago, Max became the first child in the world to have two cochlear implants. Now he's a rugby-playing college student living a full and busy life When Max Roeder was born, the chances of him speaking his native German – ...
9th May 2017
He puts the mask on, which covers almost his entire face, and he looks just like a character in Paw Patrol. Alex lies on the couch and his mother, Elizabeth, proceeds to plug him into the parenteral nutrition machine. Alex ...
13th April 2017
Tired, stiff and suffering ever-worsening movement problems, she feared her dancing days were over. Then surgery gave Inge her rhythm back. Inge and Bernd were serious about dancing. They competed in tournaments, led dance classes and practiced up to five ...
11th April 2017
Doctors drilled two holes in Jerzy’s skull and implanted electrodes that would help to control his tremors. Now he’s planning to climb a volcanic mountain and, for the first time in a long time, living in the moment. ...
21st March 2017
Hi there, As you know, today is World Down Syndrome Day. It’s a day for joining forces with others around the world to help raise awareness about what it means to have Down syndrome and how people with Down ...
10th March 2017
Keah Brown is disabled. And cute. She tells This Is Medtech how her social media campaign to improve the portrayal of people with disabilities went viral. It all started with a tweet. Keah, a journalist and writer with almost 50,000 Twitter ...
21st February 2017
Working in a restaurant is an unfortunate way to learn that you’ve lost your sense of smell, says Alahree McDonell. “I was around 19 at the time,” recalls Alahree of the day she realised, quite by accident, that she couldn’...
14th November 2016
Nothing beats face-to-face contact with people who can support you with your disease or illness. But online patient communities can come close, says Kyle Jacques Rose. As someone who has spent the past 20 years supporting other people with diabetes, Kyle ...
3rd November 2016
For Simon Harris, weight-loss surgery was a chance to break free from addiction and reboot his life Most people can think of a period when they’ve been stuck in a rut. For Simon, it was 2005 when things, personally and ...
18th October 2016
Getting diagnosed with a life-changing medical condition can be confusing, but fortunately there are people who can help. You and your family may not know where to turn for accurate information about your newly diagnosed condition, or about making sure ...
3rd October 2016
Millie Kenner, my mother, was living in her own apartment and about to celebrate her 80th birthday when she slipped on the bathroom floor and fractured her spine. Unable to reach a phone, she remained there until a neighbor came ...
20th September 2016
Dealing with his dad’s decline into dementia hasn’t been easy for Simon McDermott, but regular ‘carpool karaoke’ has transformed 80-year-old Teddy back into his old self, at least for a while. Teddy’s worsening memory and increasing aggression ...
27th June 2016
How would you feel if every breath you took depended on a host of unpredictable variables like air quality, pollen, humidity, cigarette smoke, perfume, and some others that you didn’t even know about? This is the reality for people ...
2nd May 2016
Usually people don’t associate asthma with professional athletes, but 11-year-old kickboxing champion Nathan Kelly, aka Nate the Great, smashes that stereotype to pieces. Asthma is a condition that causes the air passages leading to and from the lungs to ...
20th April 2016
It’s been an uphill struggle, but sports enthusiast Karl Tucker refuses to let Inflammatory Bowel Disease take over his life. He’s come a long way since being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease two years ago, when “there were ...
14th April 2016
Dakota Rosenfelt, 20, enjoys surfing, skiing and mountain climbing. The pharmacy doctor student looks forward to a normal life in good health – despite having hemophilia, a rare blood disorder that only a century ago would have meant crippling joint disease and ...
6th April 2016
It’s almost as if the World Health Organization had Kyle Jacques Rose in mind when deciding to make “Beat Diabetes” its 2016 World Health Day theme. Not only does Kyle understand what it’s like to ride the diabetes roller ...
23rd March 2016
TB kills three people per second. In small towns like Firozabad, the dreaded lung disease is a hazard of daily life – but there is reason for hope The Indian town of Firozabad hosts a network of small family business making ...
9th March 2016
Not many kids will know that today is World Kidney Day, but Lily Letchford does. She’s been raising funds for research into children’s kidney disease since she was six. “World Kidney Day supports those with kidney problems like ...
9th February 2016
Have you ever taken antibiotics for a viral infection? Every time we misuse antibiotics we take another step backwards – undoing decades of medical progress and risking the lives of seriously ill people in our communities. Meet Sharon Brennan. Sharon has ...
25th January 2016
A Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis is not easy on kids. Between food limitations, symptoms and needles, children often feel confused and isolated. But a new toy offers kids the chance to learn about diabetes from a friend who “gets it.” A ...
5th January 2016
A final twist in the remarkable story of a young boy with a rare immune disease that forced him to live life in a bubble. David Vetter’s life was truly unique. From the day he was born until shortly ...
18th December 2015
Meet the ‘Breathless Choir’ – a group of singers who refuse to let their lung problems call the tune. “It’s in tune!” With those words, choirmaster Gareth Malone draws shrieks of joy and excitement from one of the most unlikely ...
7th December 2015
When Gabrielle Jackson suggested writing a column about her experience with this debilitating disease, she discovered that many of her female colleagues at Guardian Australia were silently suffering from endometriosis, too. The next thing she knew, a global awareness campaign ...
1st December 2015
We’ve come a long way since the first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported over 30 years ago, causing widespread panic, a lot of questions and few answers. Back then, by the time patients were diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency ...
18th November 2015
Imagine you are bed-bound, recovering from surgery. Your operation went well but your lack of movement is causing new problems: 'bedsores' are developing on your heels, your ankles, your hips and your tailbone. Your recovery just got complicated. You may ...
13th November 2015
The joy that Becky Concannon felt when she got pregnant with her two daughters was quickly overshadowed with guilt and fear when she learned she had gestational diabetes. Though the condition affects 18% of pregnancies, many people haven’t heard of ...
19th October 2015
Thanks to last summer’s Ice Bucket Challenge frenzy on social media followed by the Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything about the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, motor neuron disease (MND) has gone from a relatively unknown illness ...
7th October 2015
She’s a budding British filmmaker who has her sights set on Hollywood. He was the first-ever comedian to perform stand-up on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and is a household name in the USA. They’re an ocean apart, but ...
21st September 2015
What would you do if your children had a 50-50 chance of inheriting Alzheimer’s from you? This question swirled around in my head for hours after watching Still Alice, a film about a fictional 50-year-old linguistics professor called Alice ...
5th August 2015
When the winter months drag on, it often occurs that chocolate becomes a good friend, exercise seems increasingly unappealing and big dinners are a regular occurrence. At this time, especially among us ladies, the weight creeps in. But usually, as ...
8th July 2015
In her award-winning role as Claire in the movie Cake, Jennifer Aniston plays a painkiller-addicted mum who’s lost her son in a car crash that’s left her in agonising pain. The emotional suffering from her son’s death ...
3rd May 2015
You're one-year-old son won't see his 10th birthday.' These were the devastating words Adam Young's parents heard from doctors when they broke the news that he had cystic fibrosis. 34 years later, he's a dancer, teacher and choreographer. Doctors also ...
14th April 2015
Imagine gasping for breath and trying not to panic. You're wheezing, coughing, trying to breath because your life depends on it. Peopling living with asthma know how it feels when an attack begins. They know the fear. They know the ...
4th March 2015
What’s it like to be a 21st century teenage leg amputee? Take 30 seconds to watch these 4 quick vids. From mosquito bites to (the difficulty of) sneaking up on people to “stupid things people say”. It’s just everyday life, ...
18th February 2015
I’ve never met a woman who enjoys the inconvenience of her monthly cycle. But for women with menorrhagia, a two-day inconvenience would be a welcome relief. They live with monthly bleeding so severe and prolonged that it leaves them ...
22nd January 2015
Are you a wheelchair user? Do you have mobility issues? Do you worry about finding accessible bathrooms and parking lots when you’re out and about? Thankfully, with the rise of smartphone apps, there has been a flurry of tools ...
18th December 2014
Designer prosthetics. Take a minute to let that sink in. Now, when you can 3D print prosthetics for under $30 or get the latest high-tech for thousands, it’s quite apparent that there’s a whole new way to approach artificial ...
16th December 2014
The thought of an artificial organ that’s keeping you alive from outside your body – literally carrying the blood through tubes from your body into a machine sitting next to you, which cleans it and then pumps it back into ...
18th November 2014
No? Anybody? Pity, because around one in four adults can suffer from bladder problems, with women more likely to be affected than men. And when we say 'suffer', we mean it. The physical symptoms are well known but the psychological ...
16th November 2014
For the millions of diabetics who monitor blood sugar levels every day by pricking their fingers with needles or special meters, the prospect of contact lenses able to track glucose levels in the blink of an eye would be a ...
14th November 2014
There’s nothing new in wearables reinventing medicine and health. Smart watches, headbands, ankle monitors and fitbits are hitting headlines every week giving patients more information and data on their body than ever before. And though I wouldn’t want ...
25th October 2014
Chances are you know someone living with diabetes. According to the NHS in 2010 there were 3.1 million people living with diabetes in England alone, though 850,000 are undiagnosed. While there's no cure for diabetes, it can be managed well and allowing the ...
23rd October 2014
Engineering students have designed a belt that monitors signs of epileptic seizures and sends information via Bluetooth to a caregiver’s computer or smart phone. The belt detects increased electrical conductance in the skin and changes in respiration rate, both ...
9th October 2014
Managing diabetes takes practice and you need the right tools to do it. We do have good tools today, but Bastian thinks we can do better. The knowledge and treatment of diabetes has come a long way since the beginning ...
30th September 2014
It's about freedom. Flexibility. Choice. People with kidney failure once had just two options: kidney transplantation or visiting a clinic for dialysis several times per week. Now that's changed. Even those suitable for transplantation usually could spend years on dialysis ...
22nd September 2014
You'll never be as outspoken and blunt as when you are a teenager. That's a personal opinion. And when it comes to living with diabetes, who needs sugar-coating? There might be a time when stigmas are gone and we will ...
19th September 2014
Model Bethany Townsend posted selfies wearing nothing but a bikini and a colostomy bag. The world watched, and the world's ostomy community took action. It's hard to imagine a more image-conscious industry than the world of fashion. But one very ...
13th September 2014
UK blogger, vlogger and filmmaker Thaila Skye is on a mission to annihilate stigmas around life with an ostomy. But she also wants to talk about planning a wedding, BBC's Sherlock and her peculiar addiction to tea. This young Brit ...
8th September 2014
What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of deep sea diving? Freedom, floating, excitement, adventure? How about wheelchair? “It’s wonderful to be here... to talk about the wheelchair and the freedom it has ...
3rd September 2014
Viagra has become a household name and a fixture of pop culture. But medication does not always solve erectile dysfunction. Penile implants are usually a last resort. Nowadays, it’s still difficult to have a clear and open conversation on ...
2nd September 2014
A faster, cheaper wheelchair could mean more mobility for the 40 million people across the world who need wheels, but can't afford them. Amos Winter might just be the next guy I fall for. He’s jovial, he’s passionate, he’...
27th August 2014
For kids with kidney failure, haemodialysis is a fact of life: the tubes, the machine, the tedium of waiting hours for their blood to be cleaned. Dialysers do the job that healthy kidneys should do. But don't listen to me... ...