1st Annual EUBIROD meeting Dasman Center for Research and Treatment of Diabetes, Kuwait City Kuwait City, Kuwait, 2nd-4th May 2009

Diabetes Registry in Kuwait

M. Massi Benedetti, Dasman Center, Kuwait

First BIRO Academy Residential Course, Kuwait City, Kuwait, 2nd May 2009

Slides

Success stories in the field of diabetes registers and health information may help understanding how to apply concepts to new areas, to provide better services, to improve results for the local population. However, success stories must be adapted to very specific situations, which in turn can rapidly change and naturally evolve towards other organizational structures.

In this presentation, Prof.Massimo Massi Benedetti, Scientific Coordinator of the BIRO/EUBIROD projects and Research Director at the Dasman Center for Research and Treatment of Diabetes, reminds us that it is not possible to buy success in diabetes registries.

According to Massimo, it is possible to import ideas, to extrapolate solutions, to understand problems, but it is not possible to directly import an entire system. Therefore, any interesting approach must be adapted to the local cultural environment and be tailored on the basis of the existing health system infrastructure. In Kuwait, there is a great need to monitor the evolution of the disease and quality of care delivered to the local population as a fundamental prerequisite for the organization of optimal care programs. Success stories tell us that in such a case it is a must to have a national diabetes registry.

However, targets of this action are at different levels of the health system and require much more than simple epidemiological estimates. We must translate data into knowledge. According to Massimo, to realize the scope of a multilevel register, it is fundamental that the health information “biodiversity” is preserved, allowing the creation of the conditions required to use different databases without asking the adoption of a unique system. Furthermore, it is important that researchers/analysts understand that results cannot speak for themselves, and that they must be carefully interpreted to produce recommendations for policy makers.

To these ends, the technology developed by the BIRO Consortium seems to be relevant and provides a viable solution. The Dasman Centre has been recently given full mandate by the Ministry of Health to advance a plan for the implementation of the registry in Kuwait. From an initial review of information systems already in place, it appears that electronic medical records are used routinely and can be successfully linked to feed an electronic diabetes register. The Dasman Center is confident that the feasibility study just been initiated will end positively, indicating the road to success for the Kuwait register with the delivery of the final report, expected within six months from the present speech.