• »Bangor Home
• »EPIC Project

The EPIC Project

About the EPIC Project : information for children and young people with diabetes

Evidence into practice: evaluating a child-centred intervention for diabetes medicine management.

The EPIC Project

The EPIC Project is about the diabetes medicine management of children between 6 and 18 years old. With the help of children and young people, we have created a new information pack for children with type 1 diabetes and are now testing it out in a randomized controlled trial. The EPIC project is run jointly by Bangor University and Cardiff University. The EPIC Project is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) programme (SDO/211/2007).

The project will take place over three years (2008-2011), in four stages, we are currently at stage 3 of the project:

Stage 1: We will look at the information that is already available for children and young people with type 1 diabetes.

Stage 2: We will develop a new information pack for children and young people with type 1 diabetes with the help of children/young people with type 1 diabetes, and healthcare professionals who help to look after children/young people with type 1 diabetes.

Stage 3: We will test the information pack to see if it is helpful for children/young people with type 1 diabetes.

Stage 4: We will let other people know what we found.

Those who will take part in the EPIC Project are:

• Children and young people with type 1 diabetes
• Parents of children and young people with type 1 diabetes
• Doctors and nurses who help to take care of children and young people with type 1 diabetes

Participants for stage 3 of the project will be recruited via Diabetes clinics in either England or Wales. (Click here for a map of our recruitment sites).

The people involved in the EPIC project are:

The main researchers

Anne Williams (Cardiff University) and Jane Noyes (Bangor University) are joint principal investigators. Dr Llinos Spencer (Bangor University) and Mrs Deborah Edwards (Cardiff University) are researchers on the EPIC Project.

Other healthcare professionals advising and supporting the EPIC Project:

• Peter Brocklehurst (MCRN)
• John Gregory (Paediatric Endocrinology)
• Lesley Lowes (Paediatric Diabetic Specialist Nurse)
• Carol Jackson (Children’s pharmacist)
• Ian Russell (Ex-director of the North Wales Clinical Trials Unit)
• Davina Allen (Policy researcher)
• Cynthia Carter (Specialist in children, communication and media)
• Rhiannon Tudor-Edwards (Health economist, Bangor University)
• Joanne Rycroft-Malone (Healthcare researcher, Bangor University)
• Mary Lewis (Lead nurse)
• Jan Sharpe (Children's medical illustrator)
• Mark Samuels (Roche, now moved to the NIHR Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI))

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this website are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or Department of Health. The NIHR SDO programme is funded by the Department of Health.

Project Progress-August 2010

We have now developed three age appropriate information packs and diaries for 6-10, 11-15, and 16-18 year olds with type 1 diabetes. We are now testing these information packs in a study to see whether they have an impact on the quality of children, young people and their parents lives in managing diabetes and in particular monitoring blood glucose levels and administering insulin.

This study is now well underway and we are recruiting diabetes centres at various sites in England and Wales. Children, young people and their parents continue to be recruited into the study and this is ongoing. The study is collecting information from parents, children and young people as well as healthcare professionals on their views and experiences of using the diaries and information packs.