July NUI Galway Launch New Diabetes Masters Programme

Given growing prevalence and resulting impact on health care resources, there is an urgent need to provide specialist training in diabetes

NUI Galway’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences has launched Ireland’s first Masters in Diabetes programme. The Masters programme aims to prepare healthcare professional graduates to effectively contribute to diabetes management through comprehensive clinical and academic training. 

Diabetes is a global health emergency with over 600 million people expected to have the condition by 2030, representing approximately 10% of the world’s population. Therefore, the World Health Organisation has classed diabetes as an epidemic requiring urgent action for both prevention and management.

This has been echoed in Irelands Health Service Executive national policy and clinical strategy for diabetes. It is a chronic metabolic condition that can cause significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality if not managed correctly. Central to this management is controlling key physiological indices such as blood sugar, blood pressure and blood lipid levels, as well as promoting health behaviours such as regular exercise, healthy eating and not smoking. Unfortunately achieving these biological targets and lifestyle goals is extremely challenging.

As a result, the University has developed this innovative multidisciplinary Masters programme which will appeal to both clinicians and researchers and provide them with the toolbox needed to manage this common chronic disease. This postgraduate programme will be delivered through blended learning, so that students will learn through online activities and approximately three days per month face-face workshops at NUI Galway. The course modules in this programme show clear connections between diabetes, cardiovascular health, good clinical practice, health promotion and advanced research methods.

Speaking at the launch of the new programme, Professor Sean Dinneen of NUI Galway’s School of Medicine and HSE National Lead for Diabetes, said: “Understanding the role of health promotion, as well as new therapies and technologies and how they will enable patient centred diabetes care will be important to ensure good outcomes for our patients. This Masters in Diabetes programme will deliver on this for students.”

The first student intake of the Masters in Diabetes will be in September 2019. For more information visit https://bit.ly/2RWvtDN or https://youtu.be/Z6gJAwyMvY4.

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