People living with type 1 diabetes learn, in many ways, to be research scientists and investigators of their own lives. We learn how slices of pizza or a plate of spaghetti affects our blood sugar, and how to mediate those effects with multiple boluses of insulin or a long-lasting dose. We discover precisely how much sugar we need to stay steady during an intense workout session.

In doing so, we begin to learn about the meaning and applications of real-world data and evidence. Modern medical and scientific research takes several different approaches to investigation, from randomized, controlled clinical trials to longitudinal, observational studies that examine how people live with various conditions and therapies in the real world.