IMI - JDRF Diabetes Patient Focus meeting
Start Date 20/05/2014New: Videos from the event are now available here.
More than 100 people attended and around 50 watched the live webstream of the IMI - JDRF Diabetes Patient Focus meeting, which took place on Tuesday 20 May at the Hotel Crowne Plaza - Le Palace in Brussels, Belgium. Participants included patient carers and patient groups, policy-makers, industry decision-makers, SMEs, academia and researchers, representatives of other public-private partnerships (PPPs), and research funding organisations.
About the event
The goal of the Diabetes Patient Focus meeting was to focus on identifying research & development (R&D) gaps in the diabetes area from the perspective of patient needs and challenges. During the day, attendees explored the diabetes research landscape as it exists now and discussed the most pressing needs of patients that are not being addressed. Ultimately, the input from the meeting will guide decisions on future topics on diabetes in IMI and in JDRF’s activities. Putting patients at the centre of the discussion with researchers and industry will give them the opportunity to become an influential force for priority setting in disease research.
The meeting aimed to cover the whole spectrum of diabetes and go beyond the typical type 1 and 2 classifications. In particular, it has been interesting to explore the commonalities between the different metabolic disorders, their causes and current therapies. This has been complemented by the patients’ perspective on what is still needed for the future and discussions with both scientists and industry on how this can be achieved.
The meeting featured high-level speakers from academia and industry describing the disease itself, its different aspects, complexities, as well as its causes. Patients focused on their experience of the disease and the challenges they face. The meeting also included the clinician's point of view and elaborated on how to ensure diabetes research is more patient-centric.
IMI has a number of projects focusing on various aspects of diabetes. Representatives of those projects described how they are already addressing patients’ needs and discussed with patients on the best approaches for more personalised treatments in the future.
Finally, the meeting discussed potential directions for diabetes research within Europe from the perspective of patients, the European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry and aimed to achieve alignment of those priorities.
Agenda
For more information about the event programme, please download the agenda
Presentations
Diabetes disease in its complexity
- What's in a number?
Annemarie Bevers, Board Member, IDF Europe - Diabetes disease in its complexity: clinician’s perspective
Chantal Mathieu, Chair of Endocrinology, UZ Leuven- KU Leuven - Precision medicine: the way forward
Leif Groop, Professor at Lund University - Diabetes therapy of tomorrow: beyond glycemic control
Philip J. Larsen, Global Head of Diabetes Research & Translational Medicine at Sanofi
Making diabetes research patient-centric
- To be patient-centric
Sandra Brsec Rolih, patient / IDF Europe - Patients' testimony
Kris Wood, T1D patient - Patients' testimony
Johan Keurentjes, T1D patient
Future of diabetes research in the EU
- Patients' expectations
Kyle Rose, Patient, MySugr Delta - EC perspective
Karim Berkouk, Deputy Head of Unit DG Research & Innovation, European Commission - JDRF perspective
Olivier Arnaud, European Director of Research for JDRF
About JDRF
JDRF is the leading global organisation funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. JDRF’s goal is to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people’s lives until we achieve a world without T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organisation with the scientific resources, regulatory influence, and a working plan to better treat, prevent, and eventually cure T1D. As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $568 million in scientific research in 17 countries.