The European Diabetes Forum (EUDF) is a newly established organization where we wish to bring together all stakeholders in diabetes in Europe, to be able to stand united for achieving our common goal: improving outcomes for people with diabetes in Europe.

The EUDF was founded by the European Association for the study of Diabetes (EASD), the European Foundation for the Study of diabetes (EFSD), the Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND) and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Recently Primary Care Diabetes Europe (PCDE), SFD (Société Francophone du Diabète) and the International Diabetes Federation Europe (IDF Europe) joined as well. The EUDF has 6 pharma companies as supporting collaborators, they joined EUDF under the umbrella of the EFPIA diabetes platform.  

It’s important to highlight that all partners, including the industry partners, are at all moments at the table to discuss the governance, ambition, strategy and the workplan.

The mission of EUDF is to ensure that policy action can be directed towards driving better diabetes care at national and European level. We highlight the importance of the national level and we hope additional countries will start-up similar forums at country level in the same inclusive spirit. We believe national forums should include always the key national stakeholders: people with diabetes, health care professionals, industry, policy makers, …  

We believe that uniting stakeholders from across the diabetes landscape in Europe will allow us to better address the challenges that lay ahead considering the diabetes epidemic and to guide policy makers in decision making by speaking with one voice. The Forum opens up to all partners who want to be involved, spanning from policy makers themselves to relevant research and scientific societies, patient organizations, professional healthcare organizations and institutions connected to diabetes related co-morbidities, pharma and diagnostic industries, governments, regulators, payers and others.

The Forum became a formal legal entity in February 2020 and we hired an executive director in August 2020 to support the forum in its function and lead on the engagement with external stakeholders. Over the previous weeks and months, we worked hard, with all the members and supporting collaborators, on the governance of the European Diabetes Forum. We have set out our vision, mission and our ambition and operational plan to deliver this over the next 3 years in collaboration with all relevant diabetes stakeholders.

We published a call to action to all stakeholders in the European diabetes landscape and arising directly from the Call to Action, three areas of policy focus have been identified:

• People with diabetes: Technology, digitalization and empowerment of self-care
• Data and registries for diabetes
• Diabetes and the healthcare system: primary care and integrated care

The EUDF is a forum for discussion with all relevant diabetes stakeholders, and for partnership together to achieve explicitly agreed outcomes. Much can be accomplished with a united voice and concerted action.

The European Diabetes Forum recognizes diabetes as a complex metabolic disease and is committed to multidisciplinary and holistic diabetes management and treatment. Pharmacotherapy and technology are important cornerstones of the medical approach to diabetes. In addition, non-pharmacological strategies such as physical activity, diet, psychological support are key features of the daily management of diabetes. While we recognize the diversity of available therapies, fundamental to diabetes medicine are the products and services developed by companies working in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Companies develop commercial e-health products and tools which will also contribute to the management and selfcare of those with diabetes.