T1D Education Platform - John Pemberton | Ep. 14
John Pemberton — Diabetes Dietitian & Creator of The Glucose Never Lies
John Pemberton, a dietitian with type 1 diabetes, on turning seven years of education guides into Grace, an AI advisor built to take people 80% of the way and stop there.
Key Takeaways
AI for 80%, a person for the rest
Grace educates and refuses to prescribe. It keeps no memory of its users, on purpose: it cannot know them. 38:16
Start from the consensus
Its base layer is the ISPAD, ADA and EASD guidelines. Seven years of his own plain-language guides sit on top. 19:20
Three levers, not fifteen
For exercise, most of the risk is in three things: your glucose, which way it is moving, and the insulin still active. 24:17
Every answer carries a grade
Recommendations run from A, for replicated randomized trials, to D, for expert opinion, so readers know what to lean on. 35:45
Structure decides the cost
Reorganising a flat knowledge base into a wiki with retrieval cut a £2,000 bill to about £50. 54:38
“Take the 80% and be grateful and then go and do the 20% with a human being.”
“Strong convictions loosely held is the way to approach it.”
Chapters
- 0:00Intro1 min
- 0:33A dietitian who became a patient8 min
- 9:00The story so far2 min
- 10:48Type 1 and type 2 explained4 min
- 14:46Where good evidence comes from7 min
- 21:51Three filters from Nassim Taleb8 min
- 29:28Five papers a week2 min
- 31:00Grading evidence from A to D6 min
- 37:04Why Grace will not prescribe7 min
- 44:28Taking money from industry5 min
- 49:57What it cost to build9 min
- 58:31How it pays for itself5 min
- 1:03:44Agents for companies7 min
- 1:11:04The next ten years9 min
- 1:19:48What AI cannot do5 min
- 1:24:26When Grace launches4 min
Mentioned in This Episode
About this Guest
John Pemberton
Diabetes Dietitian & Creator of The Glucose Never Lies
Paediatric diabetes dietitian and a person living with type 1 diabetes. He co-authored the ISPAD 2022 and EASD 2024 exercise guidelines, and built Grace, an AI agent for type 1 diabetes education.