by
Fleur Jeffries
Pictured: winners of this year’s Diabetes Education Programmes – Healthcare Professionals category: DEVICE Project Team and Oxford Medical Simulation
This year, the annual Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes awards were held at Sanofi’s head office in Reading on 13 October.
Back for the twelfth year, the in-person awards were a celebration of the best and brightest in healthcare. Recognising outstanding and innovative contributions in the field of diabetes, entries were submitted from across the UK demonstrating creativity and compassion in medical excellence and care.
The awards honour initiatives that seek to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes, and the entries were judged by NHS staff, patients and industry leaders.
The awards, created by the QiC Diabetes team and its programme partner, Sanofi, were hosted by Dr Mark Porter, NHS GP and Times columnist.
Mark highlighted the sacrifices made by healthcare professionals over the last two years, and the incredible work that they do, offering his thanks to all who took the time and effort to submit an entry.
Jessamy Baird, Sanofi’s general manager, general medicines, UK and Ireland and country lead, thanked all the participants, saying that even to be shortlisted as a finalist in QiC Diabetes was a huge achievement, given the rigorous judging process and high standard of entries.
Presenting the first award of the night, Simon O’Neill, director of health intelligence and professional liaison, Diabetes UK and chair of the QiC Diabetes judging panel, said: “Despite the challenges in the NHS, every year I’m amazed by what you have managed to do and [how] you think of new ways of doing things.”
Later, he added: “I think all the judges were blown away by the quality, even though there were fewer entries this year, unsurprisingly because of the pressures but the quality was no different; it was really hard to judge some of the awards.”
The first category for Diabetes Education Programmes – Healthcare Professionals was won by DEVICE Project Team and Oxford Medical Simulation for their jointly produced entry ‘DEVICE’ (Diabetes Emergencies: Virtual Interactive Clinical Education) Project, technology that was ‘developed to improve competence and reduce medical errors’ through the implementation of virtual reality (VR).
‘DEVICE’ went on to take home the Judges’ Special Award, with the panel commenting: “This extremely innovative project took an exciting and refreshing approach to engage HCPs in diabetes and reduce some of the key safety risk factors for inpatients. The VR experience has been thoroughly planned to include a blended learning approach, while still keeping patient care at its centre. It could have a huge impact on patient safety if it is rolled out across the UK and may start discussions around wider diabetes training for those for whom it sparks an interest.”
The winning entry for the Patient Care Pathway, Secondary and Community Award was a group effort by North-East London (NEL) Sustainability and Transformation Project (STP), Barts Health NHS Trust, Homerton University Hospital, Clinical Effectiveness Group with their North-East London Type 1 Diabetes Transformation (NATALIE) Project.
This entry impressed the judges with its “patient-centricity, alongside the data-driven and evidence-based approach employed by creators”, as well as its use of “multiple initiatives with an excellent steer on quality improvement that continued during the COVID-19 pandemic”.
During the event, Twitter was fired up with congratulatory messages between finalists, with Dr Rebecca Thomas, the previous winner of QiC 2021’s Outstanding Educator in Diabetes award, tweeting: Lovely to see a large Welsh contingent @QiCProgramme was a great night & lovely to meet the @BetsiCadwaladr & @CV_UHB diabetes teams. @SwanseaMedicine @SBUThinkGlucose@SwanseabayNHS
The final award of the evening, The People’s Award, was given to 13-year-old Lochlan Murdoch for his tireless work in raising awareness and understanding of type 1 diabetes in Scotland through the charity, Lochlan’s Legacy T1D- SCIO.
The QiC Diabetes team thanks its programme partner, Sanofi, for its support and congratulates all winners and entrants.
For the full list of winners, see QiC Diabetes 2022 results.
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