Dear colleagues, dear friends, 

We, at IDF Europe, hope that you got the chance to celebrate and enjoy the holidays despite the COVID-19 restrictions and wish you a healthy, successful and united 2021.

As we all know, 2020 has been a demanding, difficult year: we saw the devastating effects of COVID-19 in almost every country and we witnessed the disruption of national healthcare systems across Europe. However, we also saw a rapid uptake of digital technologies, and the extraordinary effort made by healthcare professionals to allow people living with diabetes to receive the care they deserved during this moment of crisis. 

During 2020, we learned how to be flexible and to adapt to changes. As we look forward to 2021, we can only continue to stay positive, strong, and united. As a community, we must work together to build a more resilient diabetes ecosystem.

2021 will mark the Centenary of the Discovery of Insulin, and IDF Europe will celebrate this milestone by engaging with its network in support of a number of activities and events, in order to raise awareness of diabetes and promote access and education to diabetes care. We will work together with MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP Christel Schaldemose and the other Members of the European Parliament who kindly accepted to join our newly founded MMD (MEPs Mobilising for Diabetes) group, to elevate diabetes on the public agenda and foster key policy changes in Europe. We will try to reduce the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and improve the quality of life and health outcomes of people living with diabetes through the IDF Europe’s Blueprint. 

Read through this newsletter to know more about our upcoming projects. We will need your support and participation in 2021 to improve the lives of people with diabetes. 

MMD (MEPs Mobilising for Diabetes) was established in November 2020 and continues the work of the EU Diabetes working group. It aims to represent the interests of the people with diabetes, their relatives and carers, as well as those at risk. Under co-chairs MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen and MEP Christel Schaldemose, MMD will work to elevate diabetes on the public agenda and foster key policy changes in Europe. 

MMD will be officially launched in February, on the occasion of IDF Europe’s virtual event titled “an EU Blueprint for Diabetes Care to 2030”. The Blueprint will introduce key pillars of action at the European level to help reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes and improve the quality of life and health outcomes of people living with diabetes. The webinar will include a series of recommended policy actions, in relation to existing and future EU actions.

The webinar will also host a panel discussion on how to support the implementation of the required actions and will offer the audience an opportunity to ask questions to policymakers and guest speakers.

More information about the Blueprint webinar will follow soon. In the meantime, follow MMD on Twitter!

To capture the experience of living with diabetes during the pandemic and the overall impact on mental health, self-management and care, IDF Europe designed and conducted (between August and October 2020) a study on the perception of the impact that COVID-19 and the measures adopted by European governments had on people living with diabetes. The purpose of the study was also to identify what made people living with diabetes feel vulnerable, try to understand the weaknesses of the health care systems that contributed to this, to understand and share good experiences and to advocate for improvements.

The survey was available in 22 languages and was promoted via IDF Europe’s social media channels, third-party channels (e.g. other NGOs, YOURAH groups, some corporate partners’ websites) and the IDF Europe’s Member Organisations (70 diabetes organisations in 44 European countries).

The highlights of the initial results of the People Living with Diabetes and COVID-19 survey were presented at IDF Europe's World Diabetes Day Symposium on November 17. 

The presentation can be downloaded here. The results showed various levels of disruption in access to care, medications and supplies across Europe and, in most countries, the deterioration of the ability to manage their diabetes for people living with diabetes. One of the major findings of the survey was that COVID-19 took its toll on the mental health of people living with diabetes: over 40% of the respondents felt very or extremely anxious during the pandemic and more than half experienced low mood more often than usual. ​

People living with diabetes strongly encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccination against COVID-19 started on 27 December 2020 across the European Union. Two vaccines against COVID-19 have been authorised for use in the EU following positive scientific recommendations by the European Medicines Agency: ​​Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Moderna’s vaccine. Application for conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) has been submitted to EMA for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. An opinion on the marketing authorisation is expected on 29 January. Many other vaccines are in the pipeline.  While healthcare professionals and residents of long-term care facilities are the first ones to be offered the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines, people living with diabetes are strongly encouraged to get the coronavirus vaccine when they are offered it as they are at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19.

Click here to know more about COVID-19 vaccines and IDF Europe's recommendations. 

One of the key priorities of DG Sante is health promotion and disease prevention in Europe. In accordance with this, 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. 

Once evaluated, each practice will be published on the Best Practice Portal and will assist Member States in reaching targets set by the WHO/UN, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 (to reduce mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030). 

We encourage our Member Associations, where relevant, to submit their best practices that are shown to help prevent diabetes, particularly in relation to: 

• Improving the environmental determinants of health; 

• Reducing overweight and obesity.

This is a unique opportunity to assist Member States and the Commission in the area of NCD prevention which will have resounding benefits for the diabetes community in Europe. The greater the number of submissions by our Member Associations the greater the visibility of diabetes will be in the Best Practice Portal which will ultimately improve the likelihood that funding will be granted to Member States to implement these practices

Please feel free to also send us a copy of your entry for display on the IDF Europe site, or if you prefer not to submit on the Best Practice Portal, but would still like to share your best practice with other IDF Europe’s Members, you may submit your best practices to us at IDF Europe idfeurope@idf-europe.org. Please format your submission under the following headings: 

• Background context;

• Overall goal and specific objectives;

• Indicators;

• Target population;

• Methodology; 

• Main outcomes. 

Click here to submit your best practices on preventing NCDs. 

Click here to read about the criteria to select best practices.

International Days are a great opportunity for IDF Europe to communicate on diabetes and to raise awareness.