Rx Communications at the 52nd EASD Annual Meeting

The annual EASD (European Association for the Study of Diabetes) conference took place on the 12^th–16^th September 2016 at the ICM Messe Congress Centre in Munich, Germany. Munich is the largest city in German Bavaria and delegates attending the meeting also had the opportunity to enjoy the city’s culture, architecture and beautiful parks, as well as the local hospitality.

The mission of the EASD is to promote excellence in diabetes care through research and education, and this was reflected in a programme that brought together the latest research findings and healthcare innovations in diabetes. EASD makes available webcasts of the major lectures presented at the meeting and these can be accessed via the EASD website easdvirtualmeeting.org

The Project Management and Editorial teams at Rx Communications are experienced in providing project management, editorial and design support for educational meetings, (from continuing education meetings for clinicians to large symposia for all healthcare professionals at major conferences). The Meetings Team from Rx provided support for a symposium that took place at the ICM Messe on September 12^th.

Overcoming insulin treatment challenges: what can we learn from clinical trials and real world evidence?

This educational programme was sponsored by Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, and provided important insights into how the key challenges posed by insulin therapy in clinical practice can be overcome, based on evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of basal, basal-plus, basal-bolus or premixed insulins, together with real world evidence. The importance of real world evidence and the features of good observational research studies were a focus of the meeting.

The meeting was attended by at least 400 delegates who had the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the faculty, using a mobile event app, making this a lively and interesting meeting.

Professor Seoyoung Kim, Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, presented data from the MOSA1c (Multinational Observational Study Assessing Insulin use) study during her talk on real world evidence and observational studies. Professor Kim is the Principal Investigator for the MOSA1c study.

The MOSA1c study, a large 2-year prospective observational study that included more than 4000 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) from 18 different countries in 5 geographic regions, was inspired by the need to recognise barriers to insulin intensification, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and helping patients lead healthier lives. By gathering worldwide perspectives on insulin use, the goal of this study is to improve the treatment of patients with T2DM at a local level. Patient perceptions of insulin therapy, treatment adherence, reasons for interrupting and restarting treatment, and patterns of insulin use were discussed by Professor Kim, who also reviewed some of the recent data reported by Jennifer Polinski et alImportantly, Professor Kim noted that the current evidence from MOSA1c indicates that a large proportion of patients are not achieving glycaemic targets for a number of reasons, including a delay in initiating insulin and clinical inertia relating to insulin intensification.

The MOSA1c study is ongoing and it is anticipated that, over the next two years, further insights will be gained into glycaemic control, hypoglycaemia, and treatment adherence, as well as diabetes-related healthcare utilisation and health costs. Evidence from this study will therefore continue to expand the body of evidence on insulin use acquired from other observational studies and RCTs so that the best possible outcomes can be achieved for patients with T2DM.

Expert perspectives on the results of RCTs and real world evidence for insulin use were discussed in depth by the faculty, with insights and practical guidance shared as to how the challenges of insulin treatment may be overcome in everyday clinical practice.

References

• Polinski JM, Curtis BH, Seeger, JD et al. Rationale and design of the multinational observational study assessing insulin use: the MOSAIc study. BMC Endocrine Disorders. 2012; 12:20 doi: 1186/1472-6823-12-20
• Polinski JM, Kim SC, Jiang D, et al. Geographic patterns in patient demographics and insulin use in 18 countries, a global perspective from the multinational observational study assessing insulin use: understanding the challenges associated with progression of therapy (MOSAIc). BMC Endocrine Disorders. 2015; 15:46 doi: 10.1186/s12902-015-0044-z.