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IDF EUROPE EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
"Blueprint for Action on Diabetes in the European Union by 2030"
A blueprint is often defined as a plan that describes how to do or achieve something in the future. Its purpose is to visualize the overall “architecture” of something to guide the design, development, and cooperation process. The term is mainly used in construction and industry, where a blueprint is an engineering drawing printed with white lines on a blue background.
The idea of the blueprint seemed to be a nice metaphor to introduce the priorities of the newly established diabetes MEP interest group MEPs Mobilising for Diabetes (MMD), which, under co-chairs MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen and MEP Christel Schaldemose, will work to elevate diabetes on the public agenda and foster key policy changes in Europe.
In 2021, MMD will build on the work started nearly 20 years ago by the EU Diabetes Working Group to promote the understanding of the multi-faceted nature of diabetes and dispel common misperceptions.
On February 25, 08.00-09.00 CET, the webinar - “Blueprint for Action on Diabetes in the European Union by 2030” - hosted by the MMD Secretariat (managed by IDF Europe) - will officially launch the MMD group and the Blueprint to 2030, which will outline the priorities to be addressed in the next ten years to flatten the diabetes curve. These priorities are articulated around three pillars:
Lowering the risk for people of developing diabetes and/or diabetes complications requires implementing measures to raise awareness of diabetes, tackle stigma, and take early action.
Integrating care is key to delivering continuity of care in a coordinated way, across multiple providers, and making a significant impact on the management of people living with diabetes and those at risk.
Enabling uninterrupted access to quality care and education is the only way of ensuring that people with diabetes can enjoy the best possible health outcomes and quality of life.
Achieving success in the implementation of these priorities can only happen through a concerted effort across three areas:
- Involvement and engagement of people living with diabetes in all aspects of diabetes research, risk reduction programmes and care;
- The digitalisation of health systems and much broader use of the data generated across the healthcare system and diabetes-specific data through the digital tools commonly used in the treatment of the condition;
- The conduct of research in the diabetes field centred not only on developing treatments but also on analysing clinical outcomes and the effectiveness of specific prevention and management interventions for actionable insights and policy action.
Come and join our webinar, to know more about the Blueprint to 2030!
You can find more information about the webinar and download the full agenda HERE.
"Imagining the next 100 years of diabetes" - Thank you for your participation!
A big thank you to those of you who were able to attend our webinar "Imagining the next 100 years of diabetes", on January 22. For those who could not attend or who would like to watch it again, a recording of the webinar can be accessed HERE.
Thank you also to our expert guest speakers, who shared their knowledge and expertise on the latest developments in terms of new medicines and advances in therapies and technologies which have the potential to make a significant impact on the lives of people with diabetes.
The report of the webinar is available to download HERE.
IDF EUROPE ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATION WORK
On Thursday, February 4, the European Parliament Committees on Environment (ENVI), and Agriculture (AGRI) held a public hearing to discuss the European Union (EU) Farm to Fork Strategy. This is an ambitious programme that aims to assist the EU’s transition to sustainable food systems. Some key points were made on the day that are of particular interest to people living with diabetes. Click here to read our summary of the hearing.
On February 4, on the occasion of World Cancer Day, IDF Europe called on national governments to take urgent measures to foster the setting up and/or further development of more integrated healthcare systems to help improve the lives of people living with cancer and other non-communicable diseases. The link between diabetes and cancer cannot be ignored, and the health benefits that integrated care can bring to people living with more than one condition is immense. Cancer is one of the main priorities of the European Commission in the health domain: Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan presented in February 2020 is linked to other Commission priorities, notably the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe and the EU Farm to Fork Strategy as well as the planned European Health Data Space, which are also IDF Europe’s priorities.
NEWS FROM EUROPE
People living with diabetes are encouraged to get the Coronavirus vaccine when they are offered it
As vaccination roll-out is ongoing across Europe, IDF Europe provided some facts and dispelled some myths about vaccination for people living with diabetes. Three vaccines against COVID-19 have been authorised for use in the EU following positive scientific recommendations by the European Medicines Agency: Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Moderna’s vaccine and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, authorised by the European Commission on 29 January 2021. Many other vaccines are in the pipeline. Each country has divided/will divide the population into different vaccination groups, and we recommend that you consult the website of your national Ministry of Health to find reliable and accurate information on the vaccination groups, to know when will be your turn.
European Commission calls for best practice submissions in the area of non-communicable diseases - Deadline: February 28th
The Best Practice Portal was established to collate information on implemented and adequately evaluated best practices in a number of areas in the field of health. Currently, submissions are open for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and will remain so until February 28th. We encourage our Member Associations to read here about the criteria to select best practices, and to submit here their best practices that are shown to help prevent diabetes.
Alternatively, if you believe you may not meet all the criteria for selection, you may submit your best practices only to us at IDF Europe, under the following headings: background context; overall goal and specific objectives; indicators; target population; methodology; main outcomes. This information will be shared within the network of IDF Europe Member Associations and on our website.
The Life for a Child Programme expands in 2021
Life for a Child is a charity that partners with diabetes centres in under-resourced countries to provide young people with essential diabetes medicines, care and education. This ambitious goal is only achievable because of the generous support of industry, non-profit partners, donors, fundraisers and local partners.
Life for a Child has recently announced a major expansion of its support to children in need: from 23,000 children supported today, the organisation aims to reach 150,000 over the next 10 years. Eli Lilly and Company and Beyond Type 1 are the key enablers of this expansion. IDF Europe applauds these new partnerships, and the work Life for a Child does and will do over the next ten years to help young people living with diabetes.
EU FUNDED PROJECTS
Please share: patient survey for Trials@Home
IDF Europe participates in a public-private partnership, funded by the European Commission and EFPIA members, called Trials@Home. The aim of the project is to map developments in the field of Remote Decentralised Clinical Trials (RDCTs), and to test different variants to arrive at concrete and practical recommendations to promote the widespread acceptance and implementation of RDCTs across Europe.
If you are a person living with diabetes and have experience with clinical trials, please take the survey here! This information will be used to develop training and educational materials on RDCTs. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and is available in English, German, Estonian, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, and Greek.
Member news - Share your initiatives with us!
Since July 2020, IDF Europe has had a page on its website dedicated to showcasing Member News. We look forward to promoting your news, activities and projects on our website, and we welcome the information you would like to share within the IDF Europe network and beyond. Thank you for sending your articles, pictures and videos to news@idf-europe.org.
Raising the voice of People Living with Diabetes
IDF Europe would like to hear from people living with diabetes interested in being part of Patient Advisory Committees on EU-funded projects and other initiatives, as well as people interested in joining our advocacy initiatives and network of advocates. If you are interested in being involved, please contact us at idfeurope@idf-europe.org.
IDF EUROPE'S OFFICE NEWS
Our team is growing - once again!
We are very excited to introduce you to our new interns, Pol Champion and Alina Chebes, who joined the IDF Europe team in February. Pol holds a degree in Physics and will support the coordination of the EU-funded projects. Alina holds a degree in European Studies and will support IDF Europe’s advocacy efforts.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank Mathilde Marcel, former advocacy coordinator, who left our team in January to pursue other professional opportunities. We wish you the best of luck, Mathilde!
Click here to meet the IDF Europe Regional Office.
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