{"id":198700,"date":"2021-08-17T11:03:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T09:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/up-launches-diabetes-research-centre\/"},"modified":"2021-08-17T11:03:24","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T09:03:24","slug":"up-launches-diabetes-research-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/up-launches-diabetes-research-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"UP launches diabetes research centre"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The University of Pretoria (UP) has launched South Africa\u2019s first exclusive Diabetes Research Centre at a public academic institution.<\/p>\n

Approved by the university senate in November last year, the centre is a collaborative initiative that brings together all the research happening in silos in different departments.<\/p>\n

The centre\u2019s Senior Project Manager, Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie, said that although housed in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the centre adopts a transdisciplinary approach and works across faculties to develop research that aims to improve the lives of people living with diabetes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a holistic approach to address the challenges around diabetes, from prevention to care, and will lead to a new vision in diabetes research,\u201d Piotie said.<\/p>\n

Diabetes, which is caused by too high blood glucose levels, is the second most common natural cause of death in South Africa, where 4.6 million people live with the condition.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Health, only 19% of people with diabetes treated in the public health system manage to control their glucose levels. The uncontrolled diabetes can lead to strokes, blindness, heart attacks, kidney failure or amputation.<\/p>\n

Dr Piotie explained that the centre\u2019s research strategy is organised around six clusters, including the prevention of diabetes; diabetes management in primary healthcare; its management in hospitals; gestational diabetes (developed during pregnancy); diabetes in children and adolescents; and diabetes technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe centre\u2019s main project to date is the Tshwane Insulin Project (TIP). Punted as \u201ctranslational research in its prime\u201d, it is impacting the lives of South Africans living with type 2 diabetes as they transition from oral drugs to insulin through the implementation of a nurse-driven, app-enabled and community-oriented intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the centre\u2019s mandates is academic development. Being a university, we want to keep producing scientific knowledge that is relevant and impactful. In the long term, we want to develop researchers, a new generation of African investigators in translational and health systems research, and implementation science,\u201d Dr Piotie said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the centre has already received a number of proposals, including one from UP\u2019s Department of Psychology, to look at the challenges people with diabetes experience in adopting healthy eating habits and taking up exercises.<\/p>\n

\u201cExisting research includes a study by Dr Maria Karsas of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health on COVID-19 and diabetes, a PhD in dietetics on the dietary implementation of glycaemic load on blood glucose control of patients with diabetes, and tech-based solutions to disease management, such as the use of sensors to monitor glucose continuously in patients admitted to hospital in a diabetic coma,\u201d Dr Piotie said.<\/p>\n

Another use of technology that the centre will pioneer includes telehealth, where healthcare is provided remotely by means of telecommunication tools, including phones or smartphones.<\/p>\n

The Senior Project Manager said these services can include patient education or consultations with a specialist, a crucial aid in the South African public healthcare environment where there is often a shortage of health professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe centre recently obtained approvals from the Faculty of Health Sciences\u2019 Research Ethics Committee as well as the Tshwane Research Committee to pilot a screening programme for diabetes retinopathy using telehealth and artificial intelligence. Primary care patients will have access to a state-of-the-art camera that detects eye damage due to diabetes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to its research activities, Dr Piotie said the centre will offer healthcare providers training, including a three-day workshop on diabetes and insulin management for nurses in primary care to be administered by Enterprises UP. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Pretoria (UP) has launched South Africa\u2019s first exclusive Diabetes Research Centre at a public academic institution. Approved by the university senate in November last year, the centre is a collaborative initiative that brings together all the research happening in silos in different departments. The centre\u2019s Senior Project Manager, Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-198700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/up-launches-diabetes-research-centre.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}