Recent studies alarm the whole society to respond to a problem that has been described as a "global epidemics", and for which the major public health measures, including primary and secondary prevention, have failed to deliver an effective reduction of adverse outcomes.
Over 25 million people are known to be affected by diabetic disease, and that at least the same number corresponds to undiagnosed cases. Moreover, the predicted increase by 2025 equals 16%, mostly attributable to the growing prevalence of type 2 diabetes among children. The impact of diabetes complications threatens health systems investing between 5% and 10% of the total health expenditure to provide care for the diabetic population.
create a permanent forum for the exchange of best practice on diabetes.
...an evaluation system with measurable targets to track health outcomes and cost-effectiveness, taking into account Member States' organisation and delivery of their respective health services..."
With respect to the Programme of Community Action in the Field of Health, EUBIROD project covers Priority 1. "Health Information", Action 2.1 "Operating the Health Information and knowledge system", addressing the "creation or improvement of morbidity registers covering all Member States on major and chronic diseases (including feasibility and costing) for which a solid indicators base definition exists (this is the case for diabetes etc)".
Health information is essential to ensure correct functioning of modern health systems. Nevertheless health services information is frequently hidden, fragmented, dispersed, under-utilized, poorly summarized, and undervalued. Despite the large amount of data and reports available, current information on diabetes is scattered and fails to offer a strategic insight to halt such progression at the European level.
base national programmes for diabetes on a more solid standardized information base.
...to deliver information "where is needed, when is needed, for the right person"
European institutions and policy makers request reports that can be rapidly interpreted to support informed decisions. EUBIROD will provide qualitycontrolled estimates based on statistical techniques taking into account potential confounding effects.
Academics require more detailed information to investigate problems e.g. determinants of the variability in quality of care and the role of socio-economic components in predicting health outcomes.
Citizens, in particular associations of diabetic patients, are particularly sensitive to the conduct of applied projects such as EUBIROD.
Several EU projects approached the problem of tracking diabetic patients to monitor and control the disease and related complications. The Diabcare series introduced the idea of routine data collection to European policymakers in the 90s.
Inspired by a more pragmatic approach, DG-SANCO funded the ECHI and EUDIP projects to identify a short list of community and diabetes indicators that could be delivered by all Member States. The EUCID project will now "put diabetes on the European map" by populating the matrix of core national indicators.
The BIRO project links regional registers to share knowledge and data standards with a finer control on quality and estimation. By incorporating all major indicators released in ECHI and EUDIP, BIRO allows monitoring diabetes and health services provided.
The EUBIROD project carries the approach to the next level, reaching a wider audience, training partners from many Member States, Acceding/Candidate Countries, and EFTA Countries, and implementing a solution for the birth of a European Diabetes Register.
EUBIROD provides Public Health with the level of detail required to support cautious decisions on top of comparable and interpretable information.