Professor of Medicine at the Katholieke Universiteit and Chair of Endocrinology at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg Leuven, Belgium.

Chantal Mathieu is a physician-scientist who has contributed to the field of diabetes and endocrinology through basic and clinical research. Her basic research work focuses on pathogenesis and prevention of type 1 diabetes. Prof. Mathieu’s clinical work involving new products and treatment paradigms in diabetes, such as new insulins, adjunct therapies and diagnosis of gestational diabetes have made her a speaker in international fora. Prof. Mathieu coordinates the European project ‘INNODIA’ on biomarker discovery and intervention studies in type 1 diabetes. Prof. Mathieu is president of EASD and vice-president of the European Diabetes Forum.

The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) has been founded to bring together multiple stakeholders from across the diabetes landscape in Europe in order to present a united voice on the needs of the diabetes community to governments, regulators, payers and others. EUDF established three Strategic Forums with 45 expert representatives of our partners. These Strategic Forums worked in depth on concrete recommendations and solutions for existing long standing challenges and issues in diabetes care related to 3 strategic priorities:

- People with diabetes: Technology, digitalization and empowerment of self-care

- Data and registries for better outcomes for people with diabetes

- Diabetes and the healthcare system: primary care and integrated care

Spearheading these solutions in digitalisation and self-care, registries, and integrated care will promote a more data-driven and person-centric approach to healthcare and diabetes management that should pay off in terms of fewer complications, improved quality of life and more efficient use of clinical resources. EUDF will continue to serve as an expert partner to promote these efforts, acting as a forum for a collaborative campaign for policy change. Our vision is to enable healthcare systems to cope with the diabetes pandemic, while achieving the best possible outcomes for people with diabetes.

Learning outcomes;

- EUDF brings together multiple stakeholders from across the diabetes landscape to present a united voice on the needs of the diabetes community to decision- and policymakers.

- The EUDF's recommendations pinpoint three areas where – if certain steps are taken – progress is readily within reach: integrated care, registries, and digital technologies.

- Local action is needed to implement the European recommendations at country level

Learning objectives;

- Understand the need to work together across specialties and sectors to optimize the outcomes for people with diabetes.

- Understand the we already have proven strategies and tools at our disposal that can turn the tide on the diabetes epidemic, if only we can generate the political and social will to deploy them.

- Understand approaches to set-up data registries, to optimize integrated care and adopt and scale-up digital solutions.

Philippe-Richard J. Domeyer is a General Practitioner and Biostatistician with Special Interest in Diabetes. He is an Academic Tutor at the Hellenic Open University since 2013, Treasurer of Primary Care Diabetes Europe (PCDE), founding President of Primary Care Diabetes Greece (PCDG) and National Representative of Greece at the European General Practice Research Network.

Philippe is the Principal Investigator in a PCDE Funded European Research Project entitled “Quality assessment of type 2 diabetes care in Greece: setting indicators from a primary care perspective”. He has published research output pertaining to diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases in peer-reviewed international journals and presentations at international and national Conferences.

Philippe is a member of the expert panel of the European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) Strategic Forum 'Self Care, Technology & Digitalisation', where he represents primary care and PCDE, and co-authored “The Promise of Digital Tools: A roadmap for apps”, a document and series of recommendations compiled by the same expert panel. As a founding President of PCDG, he is involved in various national educational and research activities in the diabetes field. He is also the founding scientific co-director of the international postgraduate ‘Diabetes and Obesity Training Programme’ delivered by Miguel-Hernandez University of Spain and Metropolitan College of Greece.

The number of people living with diabetes has multiplied during the last decades, thus putting pressure on health systems and national economies. To address this global health challenge, the development of innovative solutions has become an imperative need and digital health tools will be an integral part of such solutions.

Especially in the post COVID-19 era, digital health tools are becoming increasingly important in daily clinical care of patients with diabetes. These tools can support primary care professionals in their work through enhanced training, regular patient contacts and ongoing information sharing regarding the prevention of complications or treatment adaptations. To realize the potential of mobile apps, two conditions must be in place: apps must be easily available and accessible to people with diabetes and HCPs, and they should meet high standards of effectiveness and quality.

The integration of medical apps into diabetes care poses many challenges. There are many new apps on the marketplace, but regulations and policy solutions must catch up to keep pace with the new technology. Countries are only now beginning to establish further procedures that allow for review, monitoring, and better integration of medical apps into clinical pathways.

Learning outcomes:

- Understand the importance of digital health tools in diabetes -Explore the pathways and challenges of the integration of medical apps into diabetes care.

Learning objectives:

- Discuss the landmark of digital health tools in diabetes

- Discuss the potential of mobile apps and conditions to be met for their successful introduction into clinical practice

Dr. Pınar Topsever is Professor of Family Medicine and chairing the department of Family Medicine at Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey, where she is involved in undergraduate, as well as, postgraduate teaching and training. She is member of several professional and scientific organisations like TAHUD, TAHEV, WONCA, EGPRN, PCDE and EASD. Prof. Topsever has served terms in the executive committees of two former EASD study groups (Study Group on Hypertension in Diabetes (HID) between 2003-2007; PCDE Study Group since 2005). She regularly presents the results of her research at scientific conferences and publishes them in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Topsever is a member of PCDE (Primary Care Diabetes Europe) since 2005. She was elected PCDE executive board member in charge of research in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014 where she became EB member in charge of education, coordinating PCDE educational activities (e.g. scientific conferences,CME programs). In March 2016, Dr. Topsever was elected PCDE Vice-Chair (General Secretary), she has been re-elected for a second term of 4 years in this position in 2021. She acted as scientific Secretary and/or local organizer of major conferences like all PCDE scientific conferences since 2010, the WONCA Europe Istanbul Regional Conference (2008) and the EGPRN conferences in Antalya (2008) and Kuşadası (2013).

Dr. Topsever has been involved in the curriculum development and implementation of the in-service retraining of family doctors within the Turkish primary health care reform programme “Transition in Health” organized by the Ministry of Health, as well as evidence based guideline development for primary care. She is also involved in several national and international academic CME activities (especially about primary care management of PWD) for PCPs. Her fields of interest are care for PWD in primary care, epidemiology in the context of health promotion and preventive care, evidence-based-medicine and research methodology. Professor Topsever is editorial board member of peer-reviewed scientific journals, referee in a number of scientific awards committees and has served as a clinical referee-reviewer for organisations like the Cochrane Collaboration and EASD e-Learning, as well as, several peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Integrated care is an emergent set of practices that seeks to move away from care that is fragmented, episodic, and service-based, with care that is continuous, coordinated, and outcomes-focused. As the WHO describes it, integrated care is “seamless, smooth, and easy to navigate.”

For people with diabetes, the practical implications of integration are not theoretical, but fundamental to how people access and navigate the health system. Diabetes is a lifelong disease, with daily challenges requiring lifestyle adjustments and consistent engagement with therapies and technologies, a burden that can have significant physical and psychological repercussions if not properly managed. Greater integration of care therefore promotes a long-term and more holistic focus towards people with diabetes that is well suited to the complexity of the disease. Integration is about improving outcomes and improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, two aspects that are interrelated. Nonetheless, the immensity of the topic often leads to a sense of paralysis and an uncertainty about where to begin. To make advances in integrated care, prioritisation is needed The European Diabetes Forum, a group consisting of healthcare professions, researchers, industry representatives, and people with diabetes, have put forward five priorities to make progress in integration. These are pragmatic strategies to improve integration in all care settings, including implementing assessment models, developing patient centred pathways for diabetes care, revamping educational curricula, and putting incentives in place to encourage cooperation and teamwork within and between primary and secondary care settings. Integration is a process more than an end state. In the diverse countries of Europe, there is no magic formula for integration. What is important is to apply a general set of principles, analytical perspectives, and tools that over time will lead to long-term shifts in the way people experience care, and the way care is provided.

Dr Manel Mata-Cases is a Family and Community Medicine specialist and has been working as a general practitioner in “La Mina” Primary Health Care Centre; Barcelona (Spain) since 1984. PhD in Translational Medicine. Doctoral thesis: “Evolution of type 2 Diabetes care in Catalonia 1993-2013” (University of Barcelona, 2017).

Dr Mata was one of the founders of the GEDAPS “Primary Care Diabetes Study Group” in 1992 of which He was chairman from 2009 to 2013. Moreover, He is part time researcher of the Barcelona Ciutat Research Support Unit of the Foundation University Institute for Primary Health Care Research Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol) and the Centre of Investigation of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM), Barcelona, Spain where He is member of the Primary Care Research Group on Diabetes (DAP.cat group).

Since 1993, He has participated in several guidelines and consensus documents on the management and treatment of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Spain. He is one of the authors of the Spanish “2014, 2017 and 2020 RedGDPS algorithm for the Management of T2DM in Primary Care”, the “2012 Institut Català de la Salut T2DM Guidelines” the 2013 and 2017 “Catalonian Public Health Service Harmonization of T2DM Guidelines”, the 2018 Spanish Diabetes Society T2DM Guidelines, and the 2021 and 2022 PCDE Position Statement on the pharmacological management of Type 2 Diabetes in Primary Care.

His main areas of research are epidemiology, pharmacological treatment, therapeutic inertia, health costs, and trends in the T2DM quality of care, through analysis of the SIDIAP population database in Catalonia (Spain).

He has written more than one hundred original articles on diabetes in national and international peer reviewed journals, has been reviewer of manuscripts for several scientific journals, and lectures widely on type 2 diabetes related topics, mainly in terms of its pharmacological treatment, therapeutic inertia, and costs.

Diabetes is one of the greatest health challenges Europe faces nowadays. All major diabetes stakeholders in Europe now come together in the EUDF to generate policy recommendations and ideas for implementation. Diabetes registries are essential to enable a more evidence based and data-driven approach to diabetes management.

The diabetes community in Europe has launched several programmes and actions over the last decades, including the St Vincent Declaration, with the intent to improve the outcomes of care. These were ambitious projects with challenging treatment goals. Unfortunately, these initiatives resulted in incremental improvements that were far less than required or hoped for. In most countries the outcomes of care could not be monitored because of the absence of quality registries. At present, most data on diabetes in Europe are estimated, rather than robust, except for a few countries and regions. These registries could provide us with valuable scientific data but often are not sufficiently applied to measurably improve diabetes care.

Registries may ensure quality control and better adherence to guidelines, track performance across clinics or regions and help identify the reasons for variation in outcomes, and inform the delivery of care and treatments, which can reduce costly complications. One of the key learnings is that it takes more than just a registry to improve care, we need to use data to raise awareness and initiate action to improve outcomes for people living with diabetes. First, there needs to be the recognition by healthcare decision makers that changes are essential. Second, a dedicated team needs the authority to initiate the development of a local/regional data registry and lead and manage this registry with the mandate to drive change where needed to improve the well-defined and agreed upon outcomes of care. Third, following a successful regional effort, we need the roll-out of a broader European registry.

Learning outcomes

– Reveal the need of having data on clinical performance and health outcomes as an essential part of Diabetes programs.

– Emphasize the need of continual sources of information at regional, national, and European level for quality-of-care improvement.

Learning objectives

– Discuss the relevance of having data on clinical performance and health outcomes and how to collect them

– Review results of indicator trends of diabetes care based on registries data

– Review possible barriers to the implementation of national registries.