Diabetes care recommendations issued by new panel of experts

By Editor
25th July 2018
Good practice, Medical devices

A series of recommendations made following an extensive review of diabetes care have been put forward by a new panel.

The seven suggestions aimed at reducing variation in diabetes care and ensuring it is optimised for people with the condition were revealed at the launch of The IDEAL (Insights for Diabetes Excellence, Access and Learning) Group.

Panel members at the launch on July 25 at The Hospital Club in London

They were at the heart of a White Paper, published by the multidisciplinary panel of experts in diabetes and aimed at supporting optimisation of glucose monitoring in diabetes by focusing on accuracy and safety.

The publication ‘Safety and Accuracy – Improving Care Pathways with Optimised Glucose Monitoring’ reviewed current practice across the NHS to assess and recommend better ways to approach education, access and learning for people with diabetes.

It highlighted the importance of issues such as the safety and accuracy of glucose monitoring devices, the crucial role that education plays in supporting self-management for people with diabetes and the need to ensure adherence to regulation and standards in glucose monitoring.

We support the IDEAL Group in its goal to promote best practice and share learnings to support improved outcomes in diabetes. Ros Barker, UK Country Head for Ascensia Diabetes Care

Additionally, it emphasised the benefits of sharing best practice to improve outcomes for people with diabetes and improve cost efficiencies for the NHS.

The IDEAL Group is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Ascensia Diabetes Care.

Speaking at the launch, John Grumitt, The IDEAL Group Chair, said: “This is not a talking shop, this is about influencing and actually making change. We know what good care looks like from The Saint Vincent Declaration and we have failed to deliver it.”

The seven recommendations 

1.    Provision and sharing of models of best practice for the optimisation of glucose monitoring that can be tailored to individual CCGs to reduce variances;
2.    Increasing access, availability, funding, and attendance for ongoing structured diabetes education for healthcare professionals and people with diabetes, tailored to the needs of the people with diabetes to enable better self-management of their condition;
3.    Engaging with people with diabetes in innovative ways of utilising existing healthcare professionals and novel approaches such as evidence-based digital solutions and applications to improve lifestyle behaviour and medication adherence for those who choose to use them;
4.    Improvement of key performance indicators used to measure outcomes by healthcare professionals;
5.    Providing appropriate access to currently available high-quality blood glucose monitoring technology for all people with diabetes across the care pathways with expert advice and support;
6.    Developing rational and safe regulations for the performance criteria of continuous and flash glucose monitoring devices;
7.    Ensuring appropriate blood glucose monitoring regulations are upheld, and the means of safeguarding the compliance of CE-marked devices to these standards are established.

John Grumitt added: “Highlighting the importance of education and ensuring people with diabetes have access to the right tools for glucose monitoring that allow them to effectively self-manage is hugely important. Improving the safety and accuracy of optimising glucose monitoring is critical to enable better diabetes management. We are looking to improve outcomes for people with diabetes and ensure that the NHS is supported to be able to provide the best possible care.”

Ros Barker, UK Country Head for Ascensia Diabetes Care, who has backed the group, added: “We at Ascensia believe that all people with diabetes have a right to the best possible care that the NHS has to offer. We support the IDEAL Group in its goal to promote best practice and share learnings to support improved outcomes in diabetes.”

The IDEAL Group’s programme of action aims to build consensus, share knowledge and improve diabetes outcomes.

The panel members

  • John Grumitt, Chief Executive Officer, Changing Health; Vice President, Diabetes UK; Trustee, C3 Collaborating for Health
  • Professor Anne Phillips, Associate Professor in Diabetes Care & National Teaching Fellow, Birmingham
  • Professor Katharine Barnard, Professor of Health Psychology, Bournemouth University
  • Anita Beckwith, Clinical Lead Dietitian (Diabetes) at King’s College Hospital, London
  • Dr Raquel Delgado, Diabetes GP Clinical Lead North West London Diabetes Transformation Program
  • Professor Christopher Price, Emeritus Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at Queen Mary, University of London
  • Charles Odiase, Advanced Clinical and Prescribing Pharmacist specialist in Diabetes, Reading

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