The Belgian Diabetes Forum brings together multiple stakeholders from across the diabetes landscape in Belgium.
Vision
The Forum builds harmony and common ground between all diabetes stakeholders in Belgium to reach efficient policy engagement in diabetes and to make better prevention of diabetes, better care and a higher level of well-being for people with diabetes a reality.
Mission
It is the Forum’s mission to identify what is going well, what is missing and what can improve in diabetes prevention and care in Belgium, and based thereon, to provide guidance for policy makers for filling the gaps, and for aligning existing initiatives regarding prevention, care and well-being in a cost-effective way.
Governance
The Belgian Diabetes Forum has the aim to be an efficient platform where decisions can be taken in full respect of the specific identity of every member. Independence and multi-stakeholder approach must always be guaranteed in the decision-making processes.
You can find our Memorandum of Understanding here:
Memorandum
Discover BEDF’s policy priorities
In 2022 and 2023, BEDF consulted the diabetes community during its two “SPEAK UP” events. This led to the identification of six priorities that our policymakers will need to take into account to improve diabetes care in Belgium during the next legislature. These priorities are presented in our Memorandum 2024, which you can consult from now on.
White Paper
The Belgian Diabetes Forum has drafted a White Paper after a broad consultation of stakeholders involved in the prevention and management of diabetes, both through individual interviews and virtual workshops. This document presents a list of recommendations to raise awareness among policy makers and to help them prioritise future policy actions.
The videos below illustrate each a specific dimension of the White Paper:
Patient dashboard
The Belgian Diabetes Forum brings together a range of stakeholders across the diabetes landscape in Belgium. Our aim is to reach efficient policy engagement in diabetes, ensuring better prevention, improved care and enhanced well-being for people living with diabetes. As part of this mission, we believe patients should have better access to their own health data in a comprehensive way. A patient dashboard can play a pivotal role in empowering people with diabetes to better manage their condition. To inspire developers, we have created a two-pager outlining guiding principles for developing such a patient dashboard.
Activities
- 11 October 2025
Looking back on SPEAK UP ’25!
On Saturday 11 October 2025, we had the pleasure of welcoming you to La Tricoterie for the fourth edition of SPEAK UP. Relive the highlights of the event in our aftermovie:
Key messages of SPEAK UP ’25:
- Early detection of type 1 diabetes: blood markers now make it possible to detect type 1 diabetes before symptoms appear. A clear call was made to develop a national screening programme, starting with high-risk groups and eventually extending to the general population.
- Diabetes care in residential care centers: there is a pressing need for better collaboration between healthcare providers and institutions to ensure tailored care for residents.
- The right to be forgotten for people with type 1 diabetes: individuals with type 1 diabetes who have no complications have a life expectancy comparable to the general population. It is therefore essential to expand the right to be forgotten when taking out insurance policies for this group.
- Quality and safety of glucose sensors: to better protect people with diabetes, stricter European standards are needed—modelled on American benchmarks—to ensure the reliability and safety of glucose sensors.
You can access the presentations from the different speakers via the link below:
- 11 June 2025
On 3 June 2025, the Belgian Diabetes Forum organised a webinar around the Type 2 Diabetes Start-Traject Programme, exactly one year after its launch by the NIHDI. The aim: to take stock of this initiative towards an early and multidisciplinary approach to type 2 diabetes.
An initial evaluation of the Start-Traject was presented during the webinar. What is running well? Where are the areas for improvement? The insights of healthcare providers and people with diabetes, partly based on a survey by BEDF, made for a rich and nuanced debate.
A sincere thanks to our speakers:
🔹 Mr Benjamin Swine (RIZIV), for his presentation of the current data
🔹 Dr Luk Buyse (Diabetes Liga and member of the BEDF), for sharing the results from our survey and his valuable testimony as a doctor
🔹 Ms Els Broeckx, Ms Emmanuelle Franco and Mr Jean-Claude Simon, for their valuable practical insights
🔹 And of course also to all participants for their involvement and particularly relevant questions!
Three clear areas for improvement emerged from the discussions:
1️⃣ Better access to administrative data
2️⃣ Stronger coordination between healthcare providers
3️⃣ More education sessions for people with diabetes
📝 With these insights, we are now preparing a report for the NIHDI. In it, we compile your comments, questions and the main findings from the survey.
- 9 November 2024
Speak up '24: Comic Art Museum in Brussels from 9:00 until 14:00
- 16 February 2024
Looking back at Speak Up '23
On 14th October, 2023, Speak Up took place in the presence of experts, patients, clinicians and Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke. It was a gratifying meeting where the diabetes community was able to express its voice.
You can access the various presentations of the speakers via the link below.
The points raised by the diabetes community at Speak Up have been written down by the Belgian Diabetes Forum in a memorandum that we are presenting to policymakers in the run-up to the 2024 elections, to collaborate on the improvement of our diabetes policy.
- 22 June 2023
Webinar "Diabetes start trajectory"
On 20 June 2023, the Belgian Diabetes Forum organised a webinar on the diabetes start trajectory, a project supported by the NIHDI and currently being completed. The aim of this project is to achieve early, multidisciplinary treatment of type 2 diabetes.
This webinar allowed the start trajectory and existing pilot projects to be presented and, above all, gave participants the chance to ask questions and make suggestions, which will then be forwarded to the NIHDI.
You can watch the entire webinar again below, with accompanying slides.
- 3 September 2022
"SPEAK UP"
On September 3rd, the Belgian Diabetes Forum organized the first SPEAK UP event, where more than a hundred participants from both sides of the language border – people living with diabetes, their families, health professionals – took the opportunity to talk directly to policy makers and to share their questions and suggestions on different aspects related to diabetes management and care.
The work does not stop there, as all the proposals and questions raised during the event will now be synthesized and compiled in a report that will serve as a basis for further dialogue with the political world.
You can watch the different presentations made by the speakers as well as the discussion between panel members via the videos below.
- 25 June 2021
Seminar on the importance of data
On 20 June 2023, the Belgian Diabetes Forum organised a webinar on the diabetes start trajectory, a project supported by the NIHDI and currently being completed. The aim of this project is to achieve early, multidisciplinary treatment of type 2 diabetes.
This webinar allowed the start trajectory and existing pilot projects to be presented and, above all, gave participants the chance to ask questions and make suggestions, which will then be forwarded to the NIHDI.
You can watch the entire webinar again below, with accompanying slides.
Members
L. Crenier
Professor ULB
C. Mathieu
Professor KU Leuven
F. Nobels
Professor OLV Aalst
R. Radermecker
Professor CHU Liège
E. Dirinck
Professor UZ Antwerp
Sponsors
Contact
Belgian Diabetes Forum secretariat
Attn. Whyte Corporate Affairs
info @ belgiandiabetesforum.be
Clos Lucien Outers Gaarde 11-21
1160 Brussels – Belgium