Leeds has been selected as the UK site for a major, EU-funded European research pilot, IMPACT-MED, which aims to transform the treatment of diabetes in young people.
Supported by the EU’s Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU), the five year initiative, IMPACT-MED, brings together leading European experts across healthcare, research, industry, and patient organisations to develop innovative approaches to care across a range of cardiometabolic diseases.
Led by Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma (Italy) and Medtronic Ibérica (Spain), together with 26 partners across 13 countries the collaborative programme will connect digital tools with clinical expertise and real-world evaluation to improve prevention and long-term management of a range of cardiometabolic conditions. It aims to expand pilots into real-world adoption across multiple healthcare settings across the continent.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust is the only NHS Trust involved in the initiative. The UK-based arm of the trial, developed by the Trust together with industry partners Minimed-Diabeter and DigiBete, will explore the role that digital tools play in supporting self‑management of diabetes to help accelerate the adoption of new innovations to support clinical care.
Dr Fiona Campbell, Clinical Lead, Children and Young People’s Diabetes Team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We’re very excited to be involved in this major European initiative together with our partners Minimed Diabeter and DigiBete. This will allow the diabetes team at Leeds Children’s Hospital to explore how remote monitoring and personalised digital education can improve treatment, self-management and quality of care among children, adolescents and young adults living with Type 1 diabetes.
“As one of the UK’s largest specialist children’s hospitals, we have one of the most comprehensive paediatric diabetes services in the country. This new initiative is a significant step forward in collaborating to bring clinical expertise, digital infrastructure and patient‑centered education together to help improve treatment and care for our young patients and also contribute to the adoption of technologies across Europe.”
Leeds Children’s Hospital’s specialist paediatric diabetes team cares for over 500 young patients across Yorkshire who are living with diabetes. The team provides treatment and care from diagnosis through long-term follow-up to achieve the best long-term health outcomes.
Patients receiving care at the Children and Young Peoples’s Diabetes Team at Leeds Children’s Hospital and patients in the Young Adults Diabetes Service at the Trust will be offered the opportunity to test the latest digital innovations as part of the ongoing care and contribute to the European study.
Through the collaboration with Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Diabeter, and DigiBete within the IMPACT‑MED project, the partners will explore how digital platforms like Diabeter’s CloudCare and DigiBete can be implemented in different healthcare settings and combined with digital education and patient engagement tools.
Diabeter’s remote population management solution, CloudCare, will integrate data from insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors and other diabetes technologies into a single clinical environment with advanced triaging. This enables healthcare professionals to monitor outcomes across their patient population, identify individuals who may need additional support, and intervene earlier when needed.
Maarten Akkerman, Chairman of the Board Diabeter , said: “This collaboration provides a great opportunity to bring both Leeds Teaching Hospitals’, Digibete’s and Diabeter’s innovation focus areas together. With Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Digibete’s pioneering efforts in digital training and education combined with Diabeter’s remote monitoring driven population management innovation, we are making the next step towards a hybrid care setting while not losing the individual patient needs out of sight and being able to address those even better.”
Maddie Julian, CEO of DigiBete: “We are excited that DigiBete’s experience as a UK nationally commissioned, patient-facing, digital diabetes self-management resource, has been chosen to work with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Minimed Diabeter on this important EU project. We will leverage our 10 years’ experience of supporting our community to help deliver more personalised digital education and care and to improve wider impact and reach.”
Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, the innovation arm of the NHS, has supported the development of this initiative. It supported DigiBete from an early stage by providing expert guidance on navigating healthcare innovation and regulation and through its Propel HealthTech accelerator programme.
Dr Neville Young, Director of Enterprise and Innovation at Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, said: “Supporting innovative organisations such as DigiBete is essential if we are to test, adopt and scale innovations that improve outcomes for patients, support our diverse communities and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of health and care services. It is encouraging to see a company that has benefitted from regional innovation support now contributing to a major European collaboration focused on improving care for children and young people with diabetes”.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust is a centre for excellence for research and innovation. This project was also supported by the Trust’s Innovation Pop Up which connects industry and clinicians to introduce the latest health innovations to patients at the Trust.