Steno Diabetes Center Greenland

About Steno Diabetes Center Greenland

In March 2020 the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Government of Greenland have decided to enter into a long-term collaboration to strengthen the prevention and treatment of diabetes and other selected lifestyle-related diseases in Greenland. Furthermore, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has approved a grant of DKK 382 million to the Government of Greenland to strengthen initiatives throughout Greenland over the next 10 years.

The vision of the initiative is to improve public health and the quality of life of every person in Greenland who has diabetes or other selected lifestyle-related diseases and to contribute to coherent treatment interventions.

The main initiative in the collaboration is establishing Steno Diabetes Center Greenland, which will be a national knowledge, development and outpatient treatment centre. Steno Diabetes Center Greenland will be an integrated part of Greenland’s healthcare system.

A centre with nationwide tasks

Steno Diabetes Center Greenland will be the driving force behind new treatment opportunities and strengthening research. The initiatives have several goals.

• Treatment and patient education. The overall treatment initiatives and patient education will be strengthened throughout Greenland in close collaboration with the healthcare districts. Preventing complications for diabetes and providing coherent, individually tailored services for people with multiple diseases is key to this effort.
• Existing research efforts and communities will be consolidated and further developed. The ambition is to develop an international and Arctic-based research and education community with close interaction between research and practice.
• Intersectoral collaboration and disease prevention. The centre will operate and develop projects that support strong interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration with, among others, the municipalities for preventing type 2 diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases. A special focus area in this context will be prevention initiatives targeting overweight children.

Greenland’s geography and sometimes challenging weather require using telemedicine to ensure that everyone in the country has access to the initiatives the centre develops and offers. The centre will therefore strengthen and develop this telemedicine infrastructure.

Strengthening the treatment initiatives at the level of ambition described also requires initiatives targeting the structured development of the competencies of everyone involved. The centre will be a driving force behind strengthening the development of the competencies of healthcare personnel and developing projects and services targeting municipal employees.

The centre will consolidate and further develop the work and initiatives that are currently being managed by the Lifestyle Group in Nuuk and the outpatient lifestyle centres throughout the country and will collaborate closely with other healthcare actors.

In the section “Downloads” on this webpage, you can find a vision paper for the collaboration as well as a detailed implementation plan (Playbook) for the establishment of Steno Diabetes Center Greenland (only in Danish).

Read more about the center at Steno Diabetes Center Greenland’s website