Leeds Selected for EU Diabetes Digital Tools Pilot

Leeds has been chosen as the United Kingdom’s site for a European research pilot that will test digital tools aimed at improving diabetes care for young people.

EU-backed IMPACT-MED initiative launches in Leeds

The five‑year program, called IMPACT-MED, is funded by the EU’s Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking. It brings together experts from healthcare, research, industry and patient groups to develop new approaches for cardiometabolic conditions. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is the only UK trust taking part, partnering with Minimed‑Diabeter and DigiBete to evaluate how technology can support self‑management of type 1 diabetes.

Dr Fiona Campbell, clinical lead of the Children and Young People’s Diabetes Team at Leeds Children’s Hospital, said the Trust “is very excited to be involved in this major European initiative together with our partners Minimed Diabeter and DigiBete.” She added that the pilot will let the team “explore how remote monitoring and personalised digital education can improve treatment, self‑management and quality of care among children, adolescents and young adults living with type 1 diabetes.”

Leeds Children’s Hospital already cares for more than 500 children and young people with diabetes across Yorkshire. The specialist paediatric diabetes team, together with the Trust’s Young Adults Diabetes Service, will offer patients the chance to test new digital platforms as part of routine care and contribute data to the European study.

Digital platforms under evaluation

The project will assess tools such as Diabeter’s CloudCare and DigiBete’s education and engagement suite. These platforms combine remote glucose monitoring, cloud‑based data sharing and interactive learning modules. Participants will use the tools while continuing standard clinical visits, allowing researchers to compare outcomes between traditional and hybrid care models.

Maarten Akkerman, chairman of the board at Diabeter, noted that “with Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Digibete’s pioneering efforts in digital training and education combined with Diabeter’s remote monitoring driven population management innovation, we are making the next step towards a hybrid care setting while not losing the individual patient needs out of sight and being able to address those even better.”

The IMPACT-MED consortium is led by Università Campus Bio‑Medico di Roma in Italy and Medtronic Ibérica in Spain, alongside 26 partners from 13 countries. The collaboration aims to create a scalable model that can be rolled out across Europe if the pilot demonstrates measurable benefits.

When the study concludes, the consortium expects to produce guidelines on how to implement digital self‑management tools in pediatric diabetes clinics. If successful, the model could be adapted for other European health systems seeking to modernise chronic‑disease care without compromising patient safety.

The involvement of a single NHS trust highlights the UK’s cautious but forward‑looking stance on digital health innovation.

Enrollment is now open.

For now, the focus remains on enrolling participants, deploying the technology, and gathering data that will determine whether remote monitoring and personalized education can indeed enhance outcomes for young people living with type 1 diabetes.