Tayside to trial groundbreaking treatment for diabetes

The ‘intelligent Diabetes’ (iDiabetes) project is a joint initiative between NHS Tayside and the University of Dundee, in partnership with the University of Aberdeen and NHS Education Scotland (NES) Digital.

It will use a ‘precision medicine’ approach, meaning that treatment is tailored to the exact needs of each individual patient, whatever their type of diabetes.

The project team will develop a new clinical platform which will allow enhanced testing and more sophisticated analysis of patients’ health data. This will help clinicians to better understand each person’s diabetes, as well as their risk for complications.

Ewan Pearson, Professor of Diabetic Medicine and Honorary Consultant at NHS Tayside and University of Dundee, said: “Some people with diabetes respond better to or are more likely to get side effects with particular drugs. Others are also at higher risk of developing heart, liver or kidney disease and we know that some medications work better in those at risk of these conditions.

“Once the clinical system has been developed, we will carry out enhanced testing on 10,000 blood samples from people with diabetes living in Tayside. We’ll then use the results to provide a tailored approach to each patient’s care by deciding the best treatment for them based on their individual risks.”

Following development of the iDiabetes platform, the team will begin testing in 2023 through randomly selected GP practices. Patients will be informed if their practice has been selected.