D5.3. Guidelines for online systems and platforms. WP5 - CARE4DIABETES

The Joint Action Care4Diabetes (C4D) aims at exploiting the approach and the methods of the 
Best Practice “ReverseDiabetes2Now”, owned by the NGO Voeding Leeft (VL), to implement local 
programmes (pilots) through which investigating its transferability, feasibility and sustainability 
at Country level. The Best Practice, which addresses the improvement of lifestyle and therapy 
management of patients with type 2 Diabetes and overweight or obesity, mainly relies on both 
in-presence and online programmes, the latter delivered through a dedicated digital platform 
(the VL digital platform can be visited at https://reversediabetes2now.com/. Through the 
platform, a multi-disciplinary, trained team of health professionals is meant to digitally interact 
with the participants and to manage clinical and self-reported data. The platform is not expected 
to be used during the in-presence days of the C4D programme or for the in-person version of the 
BP (not planned within the C4D pilots); however, its approach, tools and contents might be 
helpfully exploited as well.

Each implementer Country within C4D needs to adopt a digital solution to deliver the programme 
of the pilotstudies. Within T5.3, ISS has been working since the beginning of the JA to support all 
implementers through: the analysis and a detailed description of the VL platform’s main 
functions; the identification of key-elements of a C4D online portal; the characterization of the 
state of the art at each Country with respect to the digital solution adoption; the possible pros 
and cons of the proposed platforms, applications and devices, with special focus on the 
compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2016/679); the sharing of 
approach and core elements of the ISS digital platform under construction, once tested for 
feasibility; the eventual hosting of some Partners’ digital platforms within the ISS IT framework 
to allow the in-time execution of all the pilots. 

Basically, the VL digital platform acts as an “all-in-one” platform which addresses the 
management of: participants’ clinical data; participants’ self-reported data (monitoring 
functions); activities, resources, and community-based interactions among the participants and 
with the multidisciplinary team’s members (social interaction). Clinical data management is 
critical since it deals with participants’ personal, sensible data and shall fully comply with the 
GDPR as for data security, privacy, availability and integrity. This management can either be 
performed within a regional/national health information system, or implemented via a dedicated 
platform which shall however act through secure authentication procedures. Monitoring of self-reported data is used by participants and the team to track changes along the programme, and 
shall rely on secure questionnaires and tools. The social interaction features are instead meant 
to facilitate the interaction among participants and between participants and the team, the 
participants' consultation of helpful contents, the assignment of calendar activities or the 
delivery of webinars. Supervision is needed by the team to avoid the dissemination of unsuitable
or even risky contents and messages; data security and privacy shall be guaranteed as well; 
participants shall always be informed on the level of possible dissemination of their data and shall 
deliver their signed consent.

Within the C4D, and according to each implementer Country’s resources and context, the above 
three main groups of functions – clinical data management, self-reported data monitoring, and 
social interaction - can be delivered either by means of an “all-in-one” dedicated platform or via 
separated, ad-hoc or adapted from existing, digital solutions.