Published in News
Members of the Global Alliance for Chronic diseases from India to China have been meeting in Beijing to frame the agenda for the next GACD joint research call into type 2 diabetes.
Hosted by GACD Chair Elect Dr Xuetao Cao, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Vice Minister Jianguo Zhang (General Director, China State Administration of Foreign Expert affairs), delegates were also joined by embassy representatives for a reception at Beijing’s Aman at Summer Palace hotel.
Vice Minister Jianguo Zhang, outlined the impact research will have in China. “As the largest developing country, China has witnessed tremendous changes in peoples’ diets, living environments and working habits due to consistent economic development. However, many health problems have come along with these changes. So, there is an urgent need for China to learn from the experiences of other countries and regions dealing with similar problems. The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases has provided a very efficient platform for cooperation.”
According to Dr Xuetao Cao, China how as 92 million diabetes patients and along with GACD member India, is among the top five countries in the world with type 2 diabetes. “There is a major challenge here for the GACD over the next few years. We need to discuss key elements of a global approach to promoting health and the two days of meetings, using lessons learnt from the GACD Hypertension programme, will be invaluable for the creation of a successful diabetes programme.”
For current Chair Dr Susan Shurin, one of the main priorities of the type 2 diabetes call will be to provide policy makers around the globe, with concise information to change health behaviours at country level. “The purpose of this call is to provide evidence to policy makers to make wise decisions so that they can be reasonably confident that they will have an impact on the effects of diabetes and the costs of managing the disease.”
The GACD joint call will see high-income country institutions partnering with low- and middle-income researchers to share joint research programmes and build capacity on the ground. According to Dr Shurin, the geographical spread of the GACD research programmes is key to success.
“A successful diabetes research programme would be a group of people bringing multiple sets of expertise to the table, sharing the information they get. What we are looking for is cross-disciplinary research. Many management situations are dependent on access to resources, transportation, for example and sharing these experiences would be crucial to changing the incidences of type 2 diabetes in low-and middle-income countries.”