Grant: Team Grant: Diabetes Mechanisms and Translational Solutions - LOI - General

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic childhood disorders and affects close to 40,000 youth across Canada. Although there have been many advances in diabetes care since insulin was discovered 100 years ago, youth with diabetes continue to have a higher risk of other health problems, a lower quality of life, and a shorter life span than their peers without diabetes. This health gap is likely in part due to suboptimal access to and delivery of their diabetes care, which is worse in disadvantaged populations across Canada. Our project will develop strategies to address these gaps: The CAnadian PediAtric diabetes ConsortIum (CAPACIty) is a network of 15 childhood diabetes centers from across Canada, and their doctors and researchers who specialize in childhood diabetes. We are partnering with patients/families and health care professionals to jointly design and develop a Canada-wide childhood diabetes registry and research platform. The registry will enable us to improve diabetes care and health outcomes for Canadian youth through 1) comparison of diabetes care quality and outcomes between Canadian diabetes centers ("benchmarking"), 2) quality improvement initiatives, 3) patient-informed research initiatives across Canada, and 4) successful advocacy work. As a group we will regularly monitor, evaluate and discuss use of the registry and adapt our targets and strategies accordingly. We anticipate that the CAPACIty registry will not only lead to better health outcomes, but also serve as a powerful tool for governments and decision-makers to implement policy decisions that are driven by our data. For example, this could include coverage of diabetes technologies and other innovative care concepts, especially for the most disadvantaged among youth living with diabetes. Lastly, our patient advisory board will ensure better representation of youth with diabetes and their parents among provincial and national associations that advocate for people living with diabetes.