About the Pilot
About the Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot
The Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot is a national research study that aims to find out if and how screening for type 1 diabetes should be offered to children in Australia.
While there is no known cure or prevention for type 1 diabetes yet, an early diagnosis may avoid serious health problems, improve long-term health and provide the opportunity to participate in clinical trials aiming to prevent or delay the condition.
Screening children for type 1 diabetes is safe and effective and is underway in many places around the world, including the USA, UK, Germany and Sweden. Over 500,000 children have already been screened for type 1 diabetes around the world. There are three different ways to screen, and we do not know which is best, so this study aims to find this out.
Our overarching vision is that general population screening for type 1 diabetes will be implemented in Australia to improve immediate and long-term health outcomes.
Identifying how to best offer screening
There are three ways to screen for type 1 diabetes. Each screening model is being implemented in a different geographic region of Australia as part of the Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot. The pilot aims to compare the feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of each model to identify the optimal approach for a National Screening Program for the Australian landscape.
What does the pilot hope to achieve?
The Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot has several important goals:
- To identify the most appropriate screening model for Australia.
- To explore the practical feasibility of offering a type 1 diabetes national screening program through the Australian health care system.
- To develop the Australian-specific evidence base for type 1 diabetes screening against the Australian ‘Population Based Screening Framework’ criteria, including acceptability to health professionals, consumers, and the Australian public
- To inform Australian-specific economic models for type 1 diabetes screening in order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness to create a platform to unite and engage with a broad range of stakeholders including families, health professionals, scientists and researchers, industry and policy-makers.
Australia is a leader in type 1 diabetes screening and prevention research
The Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot is part of a large Australian (and International) network of initiatives and researchers working together to identify children and adults at risk of type 1 diabetes to improve health outcomes and ultimately prevent type 1 diabetes.
More information
Click here to find out more
About type 1 diabetes
For Health Professionals:
- Type 1 Diabetes Screening Factsheet Read More >
- Staging Presymptomatic Type 1 Diabetes: A Scientific Statement of JDRF, the Endocrine Society, and the American Diabetes Association Read More >
- National Evidence Based Clinical Care Guidelines for Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Adults Read More >
The Type 1 Diabetes National Screening Pilot aims to find the best way to offer screening for type 1 diabetes to children in Australia.
This national 'not for profit' research pilot is led by the University of Sydney, with collaborating universities and hospitals around Australia. It is funded by JDRF, a research foundation for type 1 diabetes.
