National Policy Summit To Confront Diabetes Epidemic, Canada

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 03 Jun 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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The country's leading not for profit organizations have united in an unprecedented effort to tackle the serious challenges to our health care system caused by diabetes and its complications.

A 'National Policy Summit on the Serious Complications of Diabetes in Canada', to be held in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 3, is an unprecedented effort to focus attention of health care providers and government policy makers on the personal and financial toll of diabetes and its complications. This Summit is being organized by the Canadian Diabetes Association and its partners, Diabète Québec, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, CNIB, the Assembly of First Nations, the National Aboriginal Diabetes Association and the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada. It brings together all the major players essential to tackling the growth in diabetes and its complications in Canada: health care professionals, researchers, politicians, aboriginal leaders and, most significantly, Canadian living with diabetes.

"Diabetes and its complications are challenging health authorities and service providers both financially and in terms of professional resources," said Karen Philp, A/Vice-President, Research, Professional Education & Government Affairs, Canadian Diabetes Association. "There is a growing sense that a chronic disease management model may be the best option to address diabetes and lower the risk of developing its complications. This Summit will highlight the models of managed care that have resulted in positive health outcomes for people living with diabetes, and hopefully inform public policy development."

Summit organizers hope that the event will lead to a governmental action plan that will support effective personal chronic disease management in Canada, reducing complications for Canadians affected by diabetes and its effects on the healthcare system.

Philp points out that putting the patient at the centre of chronic disease management is required to reduce and prevent diabetes complications. "This Summit, for the first time ever, puts Canadians with diabetes where they belong - in the centre of efforts to design and implement new team-based managed-care models based on examples of best practices in Canada and abroad."

Diabetes is Canada's healthcare epidemic. More than 2.2-million Canadians live with diabetes. Diabetes is a leading contributor to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, blindness and amputation. In fact, diabetes is the underlying cause of 10 per cent of all acute care hospital admissions in Canada. Unless governments come forward with new, aggressive policies and managed-care models, the incidence and prevalence of diabetes in communities across Canada will continue to increase due to an aging population, rising risk of obesity, declining physical activity and increasing immigration from high-risk populations.

Canadian Diabetes Association

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