This year, Diabetes Action Canada presented its first Catalyst for Change Awards. This award, given to three recipients, honours Patient Partners who have made an extraordinary contribution to research.

One of this year’s recipients is Ryan Hooey. Ryan is a dedicated patient partner who lives with type 1 diabetes and sight loss. He holds a leadership position with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and has been an advocate for making diabetes technologies more accessible for those with vision loss, among many other areas.

Hooey, who lost his vision suddenly and had to quickly learn how to navigate a life with diabetes and sight loss, has provided ongoing support for research projects aimed at improving accessibility, as well as preventing diabetic retinopathy.

He is pleased to have been chosen for this award. “I’m honoured to receive this award and that someone thought of what I had done and what they had learned from me. It means that even though I might not think anybody’s listening, someone is,” he says.

Hooey hopes that seeing Patient Partners celebrated will encourage more people to get involved and share their experiences. “I want patient partnership to be normalized within the research community, and to be respected,” he says, noting that some medical journals still won’t accept patient partners as authors on publications.

Nominated for the award by his colleagues within the Program for Health System and Technology Evaluation team, Hooey is seen as a leader in his field. The team felt Hooey’s work as a Patient Partner and an advocate for those living with diabetes and sight loss was exceptional and that his contribution to the team was an important element of their success.

They wrote, “Ryan Hooey’s role is dynamic and he brings a wealth of experience through his education, role with the CNIB, and as an Indigenous person living with type 1 diabetes for 31 years with significant vision loss for the past 11 years due to diabetic retinopathy. Ryan provides expertise on accessibility integration for people living with diabetes from study design to knowledge translation activities for all of our studies and grant applications. Ryan has been integral in community engagement initiatives with the Indigenous Diabetes Health Circle (IDHC), providing his expertise on recommendations for the spread and scale of eye and foot screening for Indigenous communities living in rural and remote areas, on and off reserve.”

Moving forward, Hooey has great hopes for the continued integration of lived experience in research. He is currently one of the eight Research to Action fellows with Diabetes Action Canada, and is working with the National Indigenous Diabetes Association on a project aimed at improving accessibility.

“In the future, I want technology for diabetes to be accessible, affordable and available to everyone in Canada,” he says. He sees the need for so many changes – from allowing for larger print on insulin pump screens to offering audible instructions within devices to support those without sight. “It’s so much easier to integrate these things initially than retrofitting something that hasn’t been made with accessibility in mind.”