The BETTER project brings together patient partners with type 1 diabetes (or with a child who has type 1 diabetes), researchers, healthcare professionals and decision makers. The goal is to help advance research and improve clinical practice, treatments and quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes.
A registry of people with type 1 diabetes was launched in 2019 as part of the BETTER project, and close to 1,000 people have already signed up. The registry forms part of the research and includes questionnaires that participants can fill out to better identify the needs and reality of living with type 1 diabetes. It’s available online at www.type1better.com.
Adults who have signed up for the registry and completed all the questionnaires can participate in a study designed to validate the usefulness of a free online training platform created by experts. The platform includes personalized and type 1 diabetes-specific information to help with managing blood sugar.
The BETTER project also includes other clinical research projects aimed at preventing or treating hypoglycemia. To learn more, visit our website or sign up for the newsletter.
Funded by CIHR and JDRF
A $3-million grant was awarded to this research project by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and JDRF.
The four-year grant (2018–2022) is part of CIHR’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR). According to Norman Rosenblum, Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, “Canadian researchers are known worldwide for their work on diabetes and its complications. SPOR is about ensuring that the right patient receives the right intervention at the right time. This partnership with JDRF supports innovative research to improve treatments for people with type 1 diabetes while strengthening the environment for clinical trials in Canada.”
A collaboration between public and private sector partners
We strongly believe in transparency regarding research funding. In addition to public funds, the project receives unconditional donations from different pharmaceutical companies (Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi). To date, these companies have boosted the BETTER project’s budget by 10%. These additional funds are vital to ensure the project’s sustainability beyond the initial four-year funding period. These donations are unconditional and don’t impact the project’s integrity.
Do you or does your child live with type 1 diabetes in Quebec? Would you like to participate?
All personal data that is collected for the BETTER project is confidential and isn’t shared. The project was approved by the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) ethics committee.