The issue
Diabetes is silent but its treatment costs are huge when complications develop. This is especially alarming when the disease is increasingly striking patients at a younger age. Young onset diabetes before the age of 40 is affecting one in five persons with diabetes in Hong Kong. Due to prolonged disease duration, these patients have 50% higher risk of complications than their counterparts diagnosed after the age of 40. Diabetes is fortunately highly preventable and treatable with sufficient outreach detection and empowerment programmes to identify these high risk patients to prevent the preventable.
The solution
The team shoulders the mission of raising awareness with the right approach of intervention, innovative initiatives and education. They have designed six workshops to train student ambassadors, who then run community engagement activities covering blood glucose test, diabetes risk assessment, public workshops and talks. The team’s mobile app Risk Understanding by Yourself (RUBY) for Diabetes and its Complications is also promoted.
Impact
Educated about prevention and early diagnosis, young adults are more alert of their own health conditions and be able to maintain a healthier lifestyle to achieving quality of life in their middle age. Hospitalisation costs and rate is expected to decrease and thus shortening the long queue in public hospitals for specialist clinics.
Beneficiaries
– 1000 young adults of high risk of onset diabetes
– 40 selected participants with high risk scores
– 30 undergraduate students
Project Team
Juliana is a world-renowned clinical scientist in the field of diabetes, having co-authored in 500 peer-reviewed articles and actively translating her research into novel solutions. On top of founding the Hong Kong Diabetes Registry, CUHK Diabetes Clinical Trial Centre and Asia Diabetes Foundation, she is serving on the advisory boards for World Health Organisation and the International Diabetes Federation. Juliana graduated from the Liverpool University with accreditations in endocrinology and clinical pharmacology.
Andrea has been extensively involved in clinical trials both pharmaceutical-sponsored and investigator-initiated studies in the area of diabetes. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on diabetic kidney disease and young onset diabetes with a distinct interest in diabetes epidemiology. Andrea received her MBChB from the University of Auckland.
