NHS Lothian’s diabetes research teams based at the Western General Hospital (WGH) and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) have launched a number of exciting new trials to help us understand what might cause type 1 diabetes and how to prevent it.
These new studies include INNODIA, a Europe wide study recruiting people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes and unaffected family members. As diabetes affects 1 in 18 people in Scotland, with around 5,000 people with type 1 and 37,000 with type 2 diabetes in the NHS Lothian region, research to improve patient care and develop new treatments is vitally important.
Key to the success of the research are the volunteers who take part in studies. An easy way for people to participate is to join the NHS Research Scotland Diabetes research register.
Alison Sudworth, Diabetes Specialist Research Nurse in the RIE, said: “Getting more people involved in diabetes research will help make inroads into understanding the disease and create new treatments. For instance, one part of our GoDarts study is looking at genetics.”
Diabetes can damage the heart, blood vessels, nerves, eyes and kidneys and the WGH team have two trials that aim to improve the health of patients with complications.
Lesley Steven, Specialist Research Nurse at WGH said: “Recruitment in clinical trials is often challenging, particularly in diabetes renal studies. Renal patients often have limited treatment options, so trials in this area are vital to allow access to new drugs that would otherwise not be available to them.”
For more information contact: WGH 0131 537 3327 or RIE 0131 242 1456.
Any diabetes research project can make use of the NHS Research Scotland Diabetes research register, contact administrator-sdrn@dundee.ac.uk or phone 01382 383595 for more information.
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