Thrilled to see part of this design project come to life at the EASD 2024 edition at the Early Detection Policy Forum in Madrid! 🙂
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Sanofi's team at the first aT1D Experience summit in Paris.
Early detection matters more than most people realise: type 1 diabetes begins long before symptoms appear, and screening can identify it at earlier stages — which means fewer children reaching diagnosis in DKA, and more time for families to prepare. Some countries are already acting on this at scale: Italy became the first in the world to pass a law (130/2023) offering national T1D screening to all children aged 1 to 17, regardless of family history, and others are moving in the same direction.
And it's not just detection for its own sake — the science is moving alongside it, and quickly. There are now treatments that can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes: available in some places already, reachable through managed-access routes in others, and being studied in clinical trials around the world. That's genuinely exciting. They're still new and not yet available to everyone, which is exactly why forums like this matter: screening and access to what comes next have to advance together. The important thing is that people have the option, and genuine access to it. That shouldn't come down to where you happen to live. That's what makes it a policy conversation, and why it belongs in rooms like this one.
As a designer living with type 1 diabetes, seeing the artworks and storytelling showcased at this global event, sparking conversations about policy making and early detection is incredibly meaningful #codesign
