A century of insulin. A discovery that has revolutionized medicine, defined new horizons of treatment and experimentation, opened new avenues of research. Tuesday 8 June will take place at House of Representatives the institutional conference “100 years from the discovery of insulin between history, research and narration: from treatment to quality of life”, organized by the Parliamentary Intergroup of Obesity and Diabetes, in collaboration with the SIMT-Italian Society of Theatrical Medicine and the international program Changing Diabetes.
The conference will be streamed live on the Chamber of Deputies website and at the link: https://www.streamliveevents.it/100anniinsulina8giugno2021/
The institutions will discuss the rights and duties of the sick, equal access to care and improvement of the quality of life with associations for the protection of the rights of people with diabetes, represented by: Emanuela Baio, President of the National Committee for the Rights of People with Diabetes, Augusto Emilio Benini, President of FAND Italian Diabetics Association, Antonio Cabras, President of FDG, Elena Frattolin, Vice President of Diabete Forum Giovanni Lamenza, President of AGD Italy, Marcello Grussu, President of ANIAD, Stefano Nervo, President of Diabete Italia, Aurora Panizzi Ketmaier, President of ARDI, Raffaele Scalpone, President of AID.
The meeting will be introduced by Renato Giordano, SIMT president, director, actor, musician, writer, as well as endocrinologist and diabetologist, author of “Next stop. L’isola che c’e “, a novel dedicated to the discovery of insulin, a life-saving hormone, the identification of which has changed the course of type 1 diabetes, a disease with a poor prognosis until 1921, today a condition with which to live and lead a life with prospects of full normality.
«The discovery of insulin is certainly one of the key events in the history of medicine, which has made it possible to change the lives of many people. In the last hundred years, research has made many steps forward in the field of diabetes, developing increasingly effective drugs, capable of acting not only on blood sugar, but also on hypoglycemia, weight reduction, cardiovascular risk, nephropathy, all conditions that are associated with the disease. Today, given the dramatic growth in the number of people with diabetes in the world, caused by the advance of the type 2 form, which once manifested itself in the elderly and today in increasingly younger people, the aim is to find solutions not only to cure it, but also and above all to prevent it. But we don’t have to talk about just care: taking care is fundamental, but taking care is even more important. For this reason, the Parliamentary Intergroup Obesity and Diabetes is committed to supporting the professional world and patient associations in pursuing the best quality of life for people with diabetes, which involves not only therapies, but above all for the conditions of assistance and of access to treatments, to be guaranteed in a uniform manner throughout the national territory », says Hon. Roberto Pella, Parliamentary Intergroup Coordinator of Obesity and Diabetes.
«There are approximately 400 million people with diabetes worldwide, of which four million in Italy alone, and our goal must be to ensure the care of these patients, improving their quality of life. It is a continuously growing disease, which involves more and more children in the very first years of age, and which records a clear gap between the northern and southern regions, where the incidence is higher not only due to genetic factors, but also of lifestyles. The positive note of the last decade is the reduction in diabetes mortality which has decreased by more than 20 percent. This is a strong signal, the result of the progress of research that has its roots in the discovery of insulin 100 years ago, of the effectiveness of the diagnosis and treatment system in the network of diabetes centers, of new drugs for diabetes and for its complications. Today we are in a position to design the healthcare of the future, also thanks to the resources of the National Post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Plan, and it is an opportunity that we cannot waste, to make it suitable for patients, not only with diabetes, and their families », adds Hon. Marialucia Lorefice, President of the Social Affairs Commission, Chamber of Deputies.