Hypo-RESOLVE Consortium gathers online for Annual Meeting 2021

The Hypo-RESOLVE consortium again had to succumb to the COVID-19 pandemic and gathered online to hold its Annual Meeting 2021, since various consortium members were still not allowed to travel and current event room capacity restrictions rendered organising a conference with 100+ participants impossible. Despite these obstacles, however, the meeting went smoothly and was marked by intense collaborative spirit and interaction. After a warm welcome by the Coordinator Prof Bastiaan de Galan from Stichting Radboud Universitair Medisch Centrum and the Project Leader Dr Matthias Müllenborn from Novo Nordisk, the IMI2 JU Project Officer for Hypo-RESOLVE, Dr Elisabetta Vaudano, who had kindly accepted the consortium’s invitation to join the meeting, addressed the plenum. She focused in particular on the IMI2 JU expectations in relation to outcomes from Hypo-RESOLVE and the future follow-up initiative to the IMI2 JU, the IHI (Innovative Health Initiative). The Patient Advisory Committee (PAC) session following her presentation highlighted the great support the PAC offered to the various work packages over the past year and underlined the incredible value involving people with diabetes directly in the project has. The remainder of the morning was dedicated to the establishment and further development of the pooled clinical database and analysis tools, showing the tremendous progress that has been and is being achieved here, while the first of the two afternoon sessions focused on the work accomplished in Work Package 5 regarding definition of unaddressed gaps in monitoring and detecting hypoglycaemia as well as progress in and first results from the HypoMETRICS study. The last scientific session that day concentrated on the ongoing research and first results regarding the psychological burden of hypoglycaemia, mostly presented by junior researchers involved, underpinning the often-neglected impact this particular condition has on people with diabetes as well as on their families and friends. A pub quiz boosting the team spirit rounded off the day on a lighter note. The first session on day 2 focused on the great progress made in research addressing the mechanisms and consequences of hypoglycaemia, particularly by young researchers, over the past year and a half, while the second session dealt with the economic consequences of hypoglycaemia as well as with patient self-assessment and presented first findings in this particular area. The second day closed with the General Assembly meeting, which was led by Project Leader Novo Nordisk supported by Project Management Partner EURICE and focused on consortium management and contractual updates. The progress in Hypo-RESOLVE over the past three years, even under all the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, was remarkable, thanks to the partners’ continuous efforts in fostering a holistic view on hypoglycaemia. What became clear over this two-day meeting, however, was the urgent need to obtain a considerable extension of the project in order to be able to make up for the unavoidable COVID-19 induced delays that have been accumulating over the past 18 months and to achieve the project’s objectives. At our next meeting, which has been scheduled for March 2022, the consortium is hoping to be finally able to meet in person again.