Roundtable on exemplar clinical pathways for a stratified approach to diabetes

On 8 December 2015, the Academy, in partnership with NHS England, held a roundtable to explore exemplar clinical pathways for a stratified approach to diabetes in the NHS.

Participants at the roundtable discussion included clinicians, geneticists, commissioners, health economics experts and industry amongst others, and the meeting addressed different aspects of the clinical pathways for diabetes including:

• Alignment of the diagnostics and therapeutics pathways.

• Commissioning and funding frameworks for diagnostics.

• Health economics and the strengths and weaknesses of the current evidence base on clinical- and cost-effectiveness.

• Engagement of commissioners.

• Building capacity and capability.

Over the course of the roundtable, participants discussed the key issues to implementation of a stratified approach and possible solutions, as well as working to map out high level exemplar clinical pathways for the stratification of diabetes. A report of the meeting will be published in due course, and this work will feed into NHS England’s Personalised Medicine Strategy and the Academy’s policy work on stratified medicine.

Stratified medicine offers a wealth of opportunities for the healthcare sector, representing a move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to more ‘personalised’ treatment and care of patients. The Academy has long been engaged with stratified medicine, which has formed an important part of its policy work. The 2013 Academy report on ‘Realising the potential of stratified medicine’ identified key barriers to the progress of stratified medicine and ways to overcome these, with the 2015 FORUM symposium on ‘Stratified, personalised or P4 medicine’ further exploring the ongoing challenges around implementation. The roundtable will build upon this work, seeking to facilitate implementation of stratified medicine in diabetes, and utilising this as an exemplar for other stratified clinical pathways.

FORUM programme

The Academy of Medical Sciences’ FORUM was established in 2003 to recognise the role of industry in medical research, and to catalyse connections across industry, academia and the NHS. Since then, a range of FORUM activities and events have brought together researchers, research funders and research users from across academia, industry, government, and the charity, healthcare and regulatory sectors. Further information and details of future events can be found on the FORUM homepage.