Publications

2026

EUDF Infographic on the EU Safe Hearts Plan

The EU Safe Hearts Plan has the potential to strengthen prevention, early detection and management of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

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Diabetes community calls for quality standards for continuous glucose monitoring devices

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices are increasingly used by people living with diabetes, but there is currently no specific guidance or standards for their level of safety or performance, posing a risk to patients and their medical teams.

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Country-level implementation of Europe's Safe Hearts Plan for cardiovascular health

EUDF authored an article in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on the EU Safe Hearts Plan and its implementation in EU Member States.

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Recommendations for EU-wide cardiometabolic health checks

EUDF joined the The Task Force comprising organisations representing the cardiovascular, renal, diabetes, and obesity community to develop a cardiovascular-renal-metabolic health check.

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2025

Tackling Europe's CVD Crisis Must Address Type 1 Diabetes

People living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) continue to face a significantly elevated cardiovascular risk - even with major advances in care. Still today, 44% of people with T1D die from cardiovascular diseases. This is a stark reminder of the urgent need for better prevention and management.

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EUDF Statement on the Safe Hearts Plan

The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) welcomes the European Commission’s Safe Hearts Plan, a landmark initiative to strengthen cardiometabolic health across Europe. If implemented effectively, the Plan can optimise the prevention, early detection, treatment and care for people living with cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, and obesity.

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Artificial intelligence-driven clinical decision support systems to assist healthcare professionals and people with diabetes in Europe at the point of care

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionise diabetes care - from diagnosis to treatment - by reducing treatment inertia and optimising clinical outcomes for people living with diabetes. To explore this potential, we convened a working group to identify unmet needs and practical steps for implementing AI in clinical practice.

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Early detection, better outcomes: Addressing unmet needs in Type 1 Diabetes

On 4 November, 2025, the European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) and EDENT1FI organised an event at the European Parliament on early detection of type 1 diabetes and the potential of disease-modifying therapies.

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Europe’s moment to lead on Type 1 Diabetes Early Detection

On 4 November, 2025, the European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) and EDENT1FI convened experts, policymakers, people living with diabetes and industry partners to discuss how early detection can transform the future of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) care.

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Why do we need the early detection of Type 1 Diabetes in Europe?

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) develops in progressive stages: the beta cells are attacked by the immune system long before clinical symptoms appear. Without early detection, most children and adults are only diagnosed at the symptomatic stage 3 T1D, often during a life-threatening episode of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

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EUDF Shadow CV Plan

Diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases (or cardiometabolic conditions) are strongly interconnected, as they share common risk factors and clinical pathways, contributing to an enhanced risk of morbidity and mortality. An integrated approach to care is therefore essential to tackle these diseases.

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Disease-modifying therapies for Type 1 Diabetes

The disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) aim to prevent, delay, or slow progression of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) by modulating the immune response and bring us closer to a future where T1D is not only treatable, but potentially preventable.

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Diabetes registries - key enablers of high-quality care

Prof. Stefano Del Prato and Prof. Chantal Mathieu, our Chair and Vice-Chair, authored an article for the Lancet Regional Health - Europe, on diabetes registries.

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"Diabesity" - event report

The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) organised an event at the European Parliament to discuss the ongoing burden of diabetes and obesity and the impact of these two diseases on European citizens, healthcare systems and economy.

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Tackling the interplay between diabetes & obesity

Diabetes and obesity are worldwide twin epidemics affecting the European Union which together pose a growing threat to health, quality of life, healthcare systems and economic productivity. They significantly burden individuals, health systems and society through costly but avoidable complications, premature mortality and rising healthcare costs.

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Diabetes management: Improving early diagnosis and care to address the silent epidemic

Diabetes, often referred to as a ‘silent epidemic,’ is a serious chronic disease. Without the right care, people with diabetes face significantly reduced quality of life and are at a higher risk of complications, including cardiovascular problems, blindness, non-traumatic amputation and kidney failure.

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Enabling high quality diabetes care

Back in 2022, the EUDF published its first recommendations on diabetes registries, an essential tool for improving the quality of diabetes care. Last September, we reconvened with our experts to assess the progress made towards effective diabetes registries and discuss practical elements and challenges of creating, managing and maintaining such registries.

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Minimum expectations for market authorization of continuous glucose monitoring devices in Europe—‘eCGM’ compliance status

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems are becoming an indispensable tool in the monitoring of blood glucose level and daily management of diabetes. It is therefore vital that all CGM devices are safe and effective to avoid errors and patient harm.

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2024

Diabetes care in Europe: the path forward

This series of articles is a result of a fruitful cooperation with Euractiv on the path forward for diabetes care in Europe. The papers shine a light on how technology, early
detection, equitable care and individual empowerment can be utilised in the pursuit of improving patient lives and healthcare solutions.

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The year to take European action on diabetes to the next level

The EU and its member states need to adopt a full-spectrum response to really tackle the rising tide of diabetes. This will save and improve lives, as well as make both our economies and health systems more sustainable and resilient.

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2023

Take a stand for the diabetes community

Diabetes Community Pledge for the 2024 European Elections

We ask you to pledge your support for the 32 million people living with diabetes in the European Union and their families.

Early Detection - Equitable Care - Empowering People - Embracing Science & Technology

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Diabetes registries and high-quality diabetes care

Published online 24 January 2023 in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF), a representative group comprising health-care professionals, researchers, industry associates, and people with diabetes published key recommendations on developing, maintaining, and utilising registries and highlighted the general principles and guidance on issues related to governance, data collection, and structure and scope.

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Applying the WHO global targets for diabetes mellitus

Published 16 January 2023 in Nature Reviews Endocrinology

In 2022, the WHO created the first global targets for diabetes mellitus. The targets are that by 2030, 80% of people living with diabetes mellitus are diagnosed, and that 80% of those living with diabetes mellitus will have good control of glycaemia and blood pressure, 60% of those >40 years old will be receiving statins and 100% of those with type 1 diabetes mellitus will have access to affordable insulin and self-monitoring of blood levels of glucose.

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2022

The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF): a forum for turning the tide on diabetes in Europe

Diabetes is a rapidly accelerating public health crisis demanding immediate policy attention. It is an emergency hiding in plain sight: in Europe today, estimates show that 1 in 11 adults, or 61 million people, live with diabetes; this is more than the population of Italy. And the epidemic of diabetes does not show any sign of abating. Its prevalence is expected to grow a further 13% in the European region by 2045. Diabetes remains one of the most undertreated and underestimated of all common medical conditions. Society has no real sense of what living with diabetes means: the sheer scale of the health indicators one must constantly track and trace; the omnipresent threat of complications; the fear and anxiety about the future.
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EUDF is a platform to bring together stakeholders from across the diabetes landscape in Europe to present a harmonised voice on the needs of the diabetes community to governments, regulators, payers and others. It is the EUDF scope to influence future policy and engage with political leaders and decision makers around Europe to advance the agenda of diabetes and advocate policy change to enable the healthcare systems to cope with the diabetes pandemic.
The mission of EUDF is to ensure the translation of research and clinical evidence into policy actions towards better diabetes care at a national level. Apart from working at the European level, EUDF also supports the translation of the efforts at the European level to national and regional initiatives.
o far, three main areas of policy focus have been identified: technology, digitalisation and empowerment of self-care; data and registries; and integrated care.
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Relever le défi du diabète - Diabète et Obésitè

Des recommandations pour les décideurs européens afin d’améliorer la vie des personnes atteintes de diabète.
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Diabetes Registries: Enabling high quality diabetes care

Diabetes registries, which collect, track, and analyse patient data on parameters ranging from clinical characteristics, risk factor control indicators, diabetes complications, and treatments, can become an essential tool for improving the quality of diabetes care and securing better outcomes for people with diabetes when integrated in the diabetes care system.
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Registries enable evidence-based approach to diabetes management. They ensure quality control and better adherence to guidelines; track performance across clinics or regions and help identify the sources of variation in outcomes; and inform the delivery of care and treatments, which can reduce costly complications.

Yet despite all these benefits, registries are severely underutilised across Europe, with only a handful of countries with national diabetes registries. Given the growing burden of diabetes and the mounting costs to individuals, families, societies, all stakeholders to work together to advance the integration of registries in the diabetes care systems throughout Europe.

There are many political and logistical challenges to realising this vision, but the most important thing is to get registries started –depending on the country in regional settings at first, and then – when successful – to expand nationally.

The European Diabetes Forum, a representative group comprising healthcare professionals, researchers, industry associates, and people with diabetes, have compiled recommendations on building, maintaining, and utilising registries, outlining general principles and guidance on issues related to governance, data collection, and structure and scope. As always, it takes more than just a diabetes registry to improve care. Registries must be designed and used not just for data generation, but always with the goal of improving outcomes for people with diabetes.

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Five Priorities for Advancing Integrated Care

Integrated care is an emergent set of practices that seeks to move away from care that is fragmented, episodic, and service-based, with care that is continuous, coordinated, and outcomes-focused. As the WHO describes it, integrated care is “seamless, smooth, and easy to navigate.”
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For people with diabetes, the practical implications of integration are not theoretical, but fundamental to how people access and navigate the health system. Diabetes is a lifelong disease, with daily challenges requiring lifestyle adjustments and consistent engagement with therapies and technologies, a burden that can have significant physical and psychological repercussions if not properly managed. Greater integration of care therefore promotes a long-term and more holistic focus towards people with diabetes that is well suited to the complexity of the disease. Integration is about improving outcomes and improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, two aspects that are interrelated.

Nonetheless, the immensity of the topic often leads to a sense of paralysis and an uncertainty about where to begin. To make advances in integrated care, prioritisation is needed.

The European Diabetes Forum, a group consisting of healthcare professions, researchers, industry representatives, and people with diabetes, have put forward five priorities to make progress in integration. These are pragmatic strategies to improve integration in all care settings, including implementing assessment models, developing patient centred pathways for diabetes care, revamping educational curricula, and putting incentives in place to encourage cooperation and teamwork within and between primary and secondary care settings.

Integration is a process more than an end state. In the diverse countries of Europe, there is no magic formula for integration. What is important is to apply a general set of principles, analytical perspectives, and tools that over time will lead to long-term shifts in the way people experience care, and the way care is provided.

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The Promise of Digital Tools: A roadmap for apps

Digital technologies are driving significant changes in healthcare, offering new solutions to assist in preventing, diagnosing, and treating chronic diseases. Diabetes is ideally suited to benefit from these types of digital tools, given it is a largely a self-managed condition, and especially data-driven.
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The following document and series of recommendations, compiled by a representative group of the European Diabetes Forum consisting of healthcare professionals (HCPs), researchers, industry representatives, and people with diabetes, focuses on one crucial aspect of this digital revolution: mobile health applications, or “apps.”

Mobile apps is a burgeoning field of innovation in healthcare with enormous potential both to help people with diabetes track the multitude of information related to their condition, while also facilitating a more informed and data-driven approach to decision-making from HCPs.

The following document examines some of general benefits of apps in diabetes, before delving into a more specific consideration of the role of medical apps. Medical apps are, appropriately, more tightly regulated and therefore require policy interventions, as they go beyond purposes of lifestyle, motivational, or educational support, and play a role in monitoring, treating, or managing diabetes.

The integration of medical apps into diabetes care poses many challenges. There are many new apps on the marketplace, but regulations and policy solutions must catch up to keep pace with the new technology. Countries are only now beginning to establish further procedures that allow for review, monitoring, and better integration of medical apps into clinical pathways.

The goal of public policy should be to nurture a responsible and responsive environment that unlocks the positive potential of digital innovation, one that puts the needs of people with diabetes first. To realise the potential of mobile apps, two conditions must be in place: apps must be easily available and accessible to people with diabetes and HCPs, and they should meet high standards of effectiveness and quality.

The recommendations that follow offer guidance and best practice examples on developing a user-centred app, on facilitating an access pathway for apps, and on supporting a swift and appropriate integration of medical apps into health systems.

In a continent as diverse as Europe, policy is not a one-size fits all proposition. But new solutions are needed to improve care and outcomes for people with diabetes, and apps offer enormous promise to give people with diabetes and HCPs alike the tools they need to better manage this condition.

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2020

Implementing integrated diabetes systems in Europe - The enabling role of integrated finance and IT

Integrated diabetes systems, comprising horizontal and vertical integration, present an opportunity to reduce the fragmentation of care, ultimately increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of diabetes services.
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Digital Diabetes Index - Enhancing diabetes care through digital tools and services

The Digital Diabetes Index benchmarks the readiness of ten European countries to deploy digital interventions, focusing on digital technologies used to care and treat people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
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Putting people at the centre: Integrated care for chronic diseases in Europe

The chronic disease epidemic is placing a growing burden on healthcare systems at large. Integrated care, as defined by the Expert Group for Integrated Care and Digital Health Europe (EGIDE), involves the provision of seamless, effective and efficient care and prevention that responds to all of a person’s health, social and personal needs.
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This policy paper highlights a number of interventions aimed at bringing the concept of more integrated care solutions for patients living with chronic diseases in Europe closer to reality. When conducting our research, our first focus was to identify enablers to overcome the barriers preventing the shift towards integrated care in Europe. We then developed policy recommendations to support the implementation of those enablers.

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A vision for digitally enabled diabetes care in Europe - Views of leading stakeholders

Digital transformation of diabetes care has the potential to empower systems to manage costs and engage their resources efficiently; to improve the quality and continuity of care for people with diabetes, including by reducing geographical barriers to access to care; to enable better governance and policy planning in areas beyond diabetes; and finally, to foster innovation and collaboration among industry players to develop products and solutions to support diabetes care.
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Statement from the European Diabetes Forum on the European Commission’s interim report of the Mission Board for Cancer

We have taken notice of the European Commission’s interim report of the Mission Board for Cancer and were surprised by the fact that diabetes was described as a lifestyle disease.
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2019

Improving outcomes for people with diabetes - The role of health data, access to innovation and rethinking care

Improving diabetes care is a major public health challenge, requiring urgent action. Today, the scale of the problem has grown substantially, despite the emergence of innovative therapeutic options and advances in digital health.
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Enabling self-efficacy through digital technologies and innovative therapies

Patients have the tools to measure and record data and, increasingly, have access to innovative technologies and therapies that give them an active role in their care. This offers unprecedented opportunities for secondary prevention and behavioural changes and can spare people with diabetes from suffering complications that result from poor glucose control.

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Rethinking Health Systems: Integrated care and empowerment of primary care for people with diabetes

Making the transition from existing models of care poses challenges for health systems, healthcare providers and patients alike. For diabetes care, the degree of difficulty in successfully managing this chronic disease varies from one patient to another. Facilitating integrated care pathways becomes an essential tool in delivering effective healthcare to diabetes patients.

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Define, Track, Measure and Improve - How health data and registries can help improve health outcomes for people with diabetes

Measuring health outcomes is an essential tool in understanding their variation; identifying areas for improvement and assessing the benefits and impacts of clinical practice and care pathways; guiding public health policies and interventions and facilitating integrated care pathways.

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2018

A Call to Action - To all stakeholders in the European diabetes landscape

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