The Diabetic Mogul

Let’s talk about a brutal truth: the global diabetes care playbook was not written with the Global South in mind. It was written in boardrooms, clinics, and conference halls in cities equipped with continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), insulin pumps, closed-loop systems, and endocrinology specialists on speed dial. And then—without pause—it was handed down to us as the gold standard. But here’s the kicker: while the benchmarks are aspirational, the tools to achieve them remain locked behind the towering walls of inequality. For people living with diabetes in Africa and across many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the standard of care set by high-income countries (HICs) is not just unreachable—it’s stigmatizing. Take “Time in Range” (TIR), for instance. It’s a concept that makes perfect sense when you’re wearing a CGM and adjusting basal rates on an insulin pump. But when you’re injecting premixed insulin twice a day without a glucometer or test strips, it becomes an abstract met...