The goal of this contest is to find new approaches to address the treatment, lifestyle, and psychological challenges experienced by people living with Diabetes. We want to find tangible solutions to support human-centered care and create a better understanding of overlooked needs.

About Diabetes

Diabetes Mellitus is a common disease with over half a billion people afflicted worldwide. Fortunately, it can be treated with medication and through lifestyle changes. But even with a ready supply of proper medication Diabetes Type 1 and 2 patients suffer from more than just physical consequences. In recent years attention has shifted towards everyday challenges and psychological consequences of Diabetes to develop a more patient-centered understanding of the disease.

Find out more about Diabetes

Patient journey

Tasks

This contest aims to find ideas on how to elevate the quality of life of people living with Diabetes. We firmly believe that you can have a meaningful impact on the Diabetes community. As always, this is an innovation contest so feel free to be creative and think outside the box. For inspiration you can use the patient journey sketch or look at the references below. Just make sure that your idea addresses at least one of the issues below. Also, keep the evaluation criteria in mind in the Awards and Evaluation.

We have identified six major challenges that people living with Diabetes face which we want to approach in this contest

• Non-adherence to insulin treatment
• Coping with new lifestyle challenges
• Dealing with psychological issues
• The difficulty to apply dietary changes
• How to develop a more patient-centered care
• The lack of multidisciplinary Diabetes care

Submission criteria

Your ideas can cover a wide variety of projects, products, or services to improve the quality of life of Diabetes patients.

Feel free to innovate and be creative. Just make sure that you follow the submission criteria:

• The project, product, or service can realistically be used by the patient, the primary caregiver, and/or the primary healthcare provider, i.e. the specialist doctor or internist
• Make sure that your ideas fit the six issues named above

Inspiration and resources

ADA (2020). One in Three People with Diabetes Do Not Receive Support Needed to Deal with Emotional Aspects of Living with Diabetes

Ahlin, K., & Billhult, A. (2012). Lifestyle changes - a continuous, inner struggle for women with type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study

Bojadzievski, T., & Gabbay, R. A. (2011). Patient-centered medical home and diabetes

Borg, S., Eeg-Olofsson, K., Palaszewski, B., Svedbo Engström, M., Gerdtham, U. G., & Gudbjörnsdottir, S. (2019). Patient-reported outcome and experience measures for diabetes: development of scale models, differences between patient groups and relationships with cardiovascular and diabetes complication risk factors, in a combined registry and survey study in Sweden

Capehorn, M., Polonsky, W. H., Edelman, S., Belton, A., Down, S., Gamerman, V., Nagel, F., Lee, J., & Alzaid, A. (2017). Challenges faced by physicians when discussing the Type 2 diabetes diagnosis with patients: insights from a cross-national study (IntroDia® )

Capoccia, K., Odegard, P. S., & Letassy, N. (2016). Medication Adherence With Diabetes Medication: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Ducat, L., Philipson, L. H., & Anderson, B. J. (2014). The mental health comorbidities of diabetes

Garrett, C., & Doherty, A. (2014). Diabetes and mental health

Glasgow, R. E., Peeples, M., & Skovlund, S. E. (2008). Where is the patient in diabetes performance measures? The case for including patient-centered and self-management measures

Mann, D. M., Ponieman, D., Leventhal, H., & Halm, E. A. (2009). Predictors of adherence to diabetes medications: the role of disease and medication beliefs

Martin-Delgado, J., Guilabert, M., & Mira-Solves, J. (2021). Patient-Reported Experience and Outcome Measures in People Living with Diabetes: A Scoping Review of Instruments

Mukhtar, S., & Mukhtar, S. (2020). Letter to the Editor: Mental Health and Psychological Distress in People with Diabetes during COVID-19

Polonsky, W. H., & Henry, R. R. (2016). Poor medication adherence in type 2 diabetes: recognizing the scope of the problem and its key contributors. Patient preference and adherence

Willingham, F. (2012). The dietary management of patients with diabetes and renal disease: challenges and practicalities