Welcoming our Global Guardians

GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH

[The Guardians For Health: Welcoming our Global Guardians][The Global Steering Committee][SC-CRP-08004]

[Professor Adeera Levin, University of British Columbia, Canada][Prof. Levin] First of all, I want to thank all of you who are here, who've committed to being a guardian. And I really want to thank you for committing to the vision and sharing your excitement about this with your colleagues around the world.

I think it's really amazing to be a part of this global and international community, that includes partners at its core, including patients.

[Professor Javed Butler, University of Mississippi Medical Center, USA][Prof. Butler] GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH is a unique global initiative with the ambition of stopping early mortality by reducing cardiovascular and kidney complications in people with type 2 diabetes.

With this, GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH wants to make a contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development target of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one third by 2030.

For the first stage of the journey we have Guardians from across the world. The six early implementer countries are Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, United Kingdom and the United States. And we intend to grow from there.

We hope to continue to build the GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH community and form a truly global network of like-minded healthcare professionals and organisations by continuing to enrol other countries to join this exciting initiative.

[Professor Silvio Inzucchi, Yale School of Medicine, USA][Prof. Inzucchi] GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH will give clinicians the opportunity to be a part of a broader GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH community both locally and globally to optimize diabetes care

through the routine use of guideline-recommended therapies for cardiorenal protection and, finally, to make an impact on the lives of patients’ with type 2 diabetes.[•Be part of the GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH community•Optimize diabetes care by using guideline-recommended therapies•Make an impact on patients’ lives]

GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH will give people with type 2 diabetes the opportunity to feel empowered to play an active role in their care, receive treatments according

to evidence-based recommendations, reduce their risk of cardiovascular and kidney complications and, hopefully, to live longer and healthier lives.[•Feel empowered to play an active role in their care•Be treated according to evidence-based recommendations•Reduce their risk of cardiorenal complications•Live longer, healthier lives]

[Prof. Levin] My personal reasons for taking part in the GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH, is that its vision to stop early mortality is very much aligned with my vision of reducing the burden of illness and people with kidney disease around the world.

That it's incredibly global in its aspiration, which is something that we've been trying to do to improve the equity of access to all patients living with kidney diseases, no matter where they are in the world, that there's a really well-described gap

between medical needs and implementation of evidence-based therapies, and I've spent a lot of my career, education, and research initiatives in trying to really help close that gap, if you will. So, hence my personal reasons for doing this.

[Prof. Inzucchi] So, I’ve dedicated my career on finding the optimal treatment regimen for each of my patients with diabetes, and not just focused on glucose but on preventing complications, particularly cardiovascular complications.

Now, with tons of new knowledge coming from the scientific community as regards to cardiovascular risk reduction from glucose-lowering medications, it’s time to focus on guidelines and their implementation. How do we translate this evidence into action?

This is what excites me about GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH.

[Professor Lars Rydén, Karolinska Institute, Sweden][Prof. Rydén] The GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH Initiative is truly needed and now, because there is an overwhelming number of people, almost four hundred and fifty, five hundred million who have type 2 diabetes.

And that number will increase rapidly over the years to come. That will cause a huge burden on our healthcare expenditures all over the world. We know that about half of the patients are not detected.

So, there are all reasons to treat the present patients better to detect those who don’t know that they have diabetes but still have the risk of complications to it detect them earlier and treat them earlier and better.

And this goes hands in hands with the United Nations Initiative that we should fight non-communicable diseases1 which have to be a very great problem for the, at least developed world but is coming as a roaring lion even in those countries who are under development.

So it's very timely initiative to start a program like this at the moment.

[Dr Naresh Kanumilli, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, UK][Dr. Kanumilli] There's a rapidly growing evidence base, means that clinicians are not always aware of the latest developments in preventing cardiovascular and kidney complications in type 2 diabetes, and the availability of multiple international and national guidelines add complexity to the treatment landscape.

So even if clinicians are aware of the latest guideline recommendations they may lack the working knowledge on how to implement them into clinical practice. We know the real-world studies have shown that less than ten percent of the people

with type two diabetes, plus atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, receive the full set of guideline recommended key medications, which as we know are the statins, the ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, SGLT2s and GLP-1 RAs along with antiplatelet, such as aspirin.

But more needs to be done to drive guideline adoption in clinical practice to make a significant impact on reducing cardiovascular deaths in people with type 2 diabetes.

Furthermore, people living with type 2 diabetes are better informed than they used to be. And there is an opportunity for us to collaborate more effectively so they can take more responsibility for their care.

These reasons are why now is the time to join GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH movement, and reach a goal of stopping early mortality in people with type two diabetes so that they may live longer and healthier lives.

[Dr Alice Cheng, University of Toronto, Canada][Dr. Cheng] As part of a continuing commitment to the ambitions of the initiative, Guardians are key to bring the vision and mission of GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH to life.

They are critical to promote guideline implementation and evidence-based approaches in type 2 diabetes, and they will share their willingness to create change, and most importantly, inspire others to inspire their colleagues to also take on this mission, and to implement guideline-directed therapy.[•Promote guideline implementation•Create change•Inspire others]

Guardians will be part of a global community with the opportunity to build local and regional networks of like-minded healthcare professionals with the motivation to promote evidence-based approaches in type 2 diabetes, and ultimately make a difference to the lives of people with type 2 diabetes.

[Prof. Wanner] Thank you that you are with us on this journey for making lives of patients with Type 2 diabetes better or improving their quality of life

By attending, you share your excitement about having everybody here in place and with us in the community of the Guardians within the

initiate of Guardians for health. And I can only encourage to communicate your ambitions of the initiative to others and share with your

colleagues all the knowledge and tools we are looking on after the summit.

[Dr. Shelley] We are so excited that you are attending this summit for Guardians for Health as part of our early implementer countries.

This is really an opportunity for us to build better practices and learn from each other. We are going to start building this global network

that is going to impact and influence the care of millions of patients living with Type 2 diabetes. Thanks for being part of it. Thanks for being leaders and thanks for putting your patients first.

[GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH][guardiansforhealth.ca]