Imagine this…

You walk into your diabetes appointment.

The nurse doesn’t start by asking about your blood sugar levels.

Instead, they begin with:

“How are you coping lately?”
“What’s been hardest for you?”
“What would make life with diabetes easier right now?”

It sounds simple. But it’s still far too rare.

For decades, diabetes care has been built around numbers, not narratives. Around protocols, not people. Around disease, not the person living with it every day.

Yet the truth is this: people don’t live with diabetes in 15-minute (at best!) appointment slots.

They live with it 24/7, constantly balancing data, decisions, emotions, and daily life.

The shift we need: from managing conditions to understanding people

As someone who’s lived with type 1 diabetes for four decades, works within healthcare systems, and advocates for better outcomes, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative it can be when care becomes truly person-centered.

But let’s be clear: person-centered care isn’t just a warm-and-fuzzy slogan. It’s a strategic, evidence-based approach that recognizes each individual’s values, goals, and lived experience as essential data points in care delivery.

When we shift the focus from “What’s your A1c?” to “What matters to you?”, a lot has the possibility to change.

What person-centered diabetes care really means

Person-centered diabetes care goes far beyond being “nice” or empathetic. It’s about co-creating care that fits a person’s life, and not forcing life to fit the care plan.

It means:

• Listening before prescribing, starting with the story, not the statistics.
• Co-designing goals based on what’s meaningful to the person, not just what’s measurable.
• Acknowledging mental load, recognizing diabetes distress, burnout, and the emotional side of chronic management. See the recent Clinical Guidelines on Diabetes Distress by EASD for more info here!
• Building trust and partnership, making the person an active participant, not a passive recipient.

This approach aligns beautifully with Value-Based Health Care (VBHC) principles, where success is measured not only by clinical outcomes (CROMs) but also by Patient-Reported Outcomes and Experiences (PROMs and PREMs), comprising a key reflection of whether care delivers outcomes that matter the most.

Why person-centered care leads to better clinical outcomes

Research consistently shows that when care is person-centered:

• People are more engaged in caring for themselves.
• Clinicians experience less burnout through meaningful partnerships.
• Health systems achieve better outcomes per unit of cost.

But beyond metrics, the human impact is undeniable. When we feel heard, respected, and seen, we are more motivated to manage our health, leading to a transformative shift.

A story that stays with me

A few years ago, I spoke with a young woman who was newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Her first appointment focused entirely on insulin doses and carb ratios. When she finally asked, “Is it normal to feel completely overwhelmed?”, the nurse replied, “Let’s not get into that right now.”

That moment shaped her trust in the healthcare system, along with her ability to engage with it, for years.

Person-centered care could have changed that story.

The relatively simple question of “how are you doing with all this?” could have opened the door to understanding, support, and hope.

The future of diabetes care is relational, not transactional

The next frontier in diabetes care isn’t another app or device (although innovation has and continues to help the daily management extensively).

We need to start looking further, toward a cultural shift from systems that treat to systems that partner.

When care teams, patients, policymakers, and industry collaborate around shared goals and lived experience, diabetes care becomes not just effective but increasingly human, which is much needed in a world that is increasingly driven by AI tools and solutions.

Let’s rethink care, together

So, what if diabetes care actually started with the person?

What if every clinic, policy, and innovation began with one simple question:

“What matters most to you right now?”

That’s the future I believe in. It’s the one I’m working toward through advocacy, education, and collaboration.

Over to you…

What does person-centered care mean to you (as a healthcare professional, person with diabetes, caregiver, pharma, policy maker, or insurer)?

Share your thoughts below or connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @hannadiabetesexpert. Let’s move this conversation, along with diabetes care, forward.