Dundee is to become the “hub” of Scotland’s cutting edge research into diabetes.

A major initiative to increase co-operation between diabetes researchers and make Scotland a world leader in prevention and treatment of the condition was launched in the city yesterday.

The Scottish Diabetes Research Network (SDRN) has been commissioned by the Chief Scientist’s Office to accelerate development and adoption of better treatments and new techniques to combat diabetes.

Scotland has seen a massive rise in the number of people with diabetes in recent years – with almost 200,000 are now known to suffer from it.

It is hoped the SDRN will increase joint working as well as increase recruitment to all clinical trials throughout Scotland.

A hub for the network has been established at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee. Dr John Petrie, reader in diabetic medicine at Dundee University, has been appointed to head the initiative with clinical lead colleagues providing support and leadership in other major Scottish centres.

“We have already made excellent strides in Scotland in putting in place strong systems for research into prevention and treatment of diabetes, but the establishment of the Scottish Diabetes Research Network is another significant step forward,” said Dr Petrie.

“This will help us engage even more widely with the general health community and the public, which will lead to real benefits in how we understand and treat diabetes.”

Among the new measures that will be put in place by the SDRN is a “research register” of patients who are keen to hear more about chances to participate in clinical trials, including those of new therapies.

The SDRN will also provide practical support to primary and secondary care centres that wish to increase the amount of diabetes research in which they are participating, or to take the initial steps to become involved in research.

This will include the training of specialist research staff in health centres and local hospitals.

Scotland has contributed much to the development of modern diabetes therapies, including J. J. R. McLeod’s key role in the discovery of insulin in the 1920s and more recently the development of the first insulin “pen” device by John Ireland and David Wyper in Glasgow.

The SDRN builds on initiatives such as the Scottish Care Information—Diabetes Collaboration (SCI-DC), an internationally recognised system of successfully managing the health data of people with diabetes.

The roots of SCI-DC lie in a Chief Scientist Office-funded project initiated in Tayside over 10 years ago—the Diabetes Audit and Research TaySide (DARTS) project, led by Professor Andrew Morris at Dundee University.

It allows GPs, practice nurses, diabetes specialists and other diabetes team members to click swiftly through up-to-date and secure individual information on sugar control, blood pressure, cholesterol, and current medication.

Using this system, healthcare professionals and patients share updated graphs of trends over time in all of these vital statistics, wherever they were acquired.

In June a £20 million research facility that could help save the lives of millions of cancer and diabetes sufferers throughout the world was officially opened at Dundee University.