Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
February 2025

In June of 2021, The National Framework for Diabetes was passed in Canada. The Framework aims to provide a common policy direction to address diabetes in Canada, including for populations at elevated risk of developing diabetes, people living with diabetes and their caregivers, Indigenous populations, non-governmental organizations, health care professionals, researchers, and all levels of government. It lays the foundation for collaborative and complementary action by all sectors of society to improve access to diabetes prevention and treatment and ensure better health outcomes for people living in Canada.

At the end of January, I had the pleasure of co-facilitating a meeting with Diabetes Canada and Diabetes Action Canada (DAC) titled, Sustaining Momentum to Implement the Diabetes Framework (SMIDF): Convening Stakeholders to Share Strategies and Best Practices to Address Treatment and Health Equity Gaps in Diabetes Prevention and Care. The meeting was meant to provide advice to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on how future research directions could further address the treatment and health equity gaps in diabetes prevention and care in Canada.

The objectives of the meeting were all based on the Diabetes Framework research component, and included identifying the current gaps in research across the four pillars that must be filled to address improving diabetes prevention and care in Canada, the most effective ways forward for implementing the research and building capacity necessary to address these gaps over the next 5 years, and how leaders in diabetes research can best leverage existing and new resources for current and future researchers to advance this implementation.

A variety of research gaps were identified and will be compiled into a report to be shared publicly as part of the SMIDF process. What will be the end result of such deliberations? I see this as an iterative process that will likely continue over time, indeed will be necessary with the passage of time, as the diabetes community coalesces to advocate for the resources that will be needed to meet the challenges of this devastating disease. This meeting illustrates the engagement of research in the process of developing the National Framework for Diabetes. The research community must stay engaged as the process continues.

I want to thank the meeting organizers and co-facilitators, presenters, as well as the researchers who participated in this meeting and express my appreciation for the collaboration between CIHR-INMD, Diabetes Canada and Diabetes Action Canada.

Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

Date modified:

2025-02-19