Glasgow Caledonian University

Caledonian University staff in consultation with Dr Moffat Nyirenda, a Consultant from Malawi currently based in Edinburgh, are currently preparing a diabetes education and innovation project. Caledonian’s Post Experience Certificate in Diabetes care was developed in 2002 initially to meet the needs of local GPs and other healthcare professionals who, before our part-time course was established, were restricted to update training programmes on diabetes care from Warwick and Bradford in England. Some 300 healthcare professionals have completed our postgraduate course which is recognised by the Scottish Government’s Diabetes Education Advisory Group as meeting the core competencies set out by them. It is estimated that some three percent of the world population has diabetes and that this will double by 2025. Complications arising from diabetes cause major disabilities such as blindness and lower limb amputations. Approximately seven million people in sub-Saharan Africa are known to have diabetes and this is expected to double within the next twenty years. Undiagnosed diabetes is estimated to be of the order of 60 – 80% in most sub-Saharan regions. The proposed programme has five complementary components, (i) an epidemiological survey in Malawi using an innovative affordable diagnostic technique (ii) a co-created educational programme (iii) joint production with Malawi of affordable treatment products (iv) provision of key existing diagnostic and treatment equipment to Malawi and (v) development of laboratory instrumentation care services. We intend to develop affordable diagnostic and treatment products for use in Malawi and for export from Malawi.