In the following pages, you will find a series of stories told by people involved in diabetes projects in British Columbia. These stories come from diabetes projects funded through the Canadian Diabetes Strategy Prevention and Promotion Contribution Program. This program supports community-based projects that contribute to raising awareness of diabetes, preventing type 2 diabetes, and promoting the health and well-being of people affected by diabetes. The stories included in this document are from projects that took place between 2001- 2004.

Responding to the Challenge of Diabetes in Canada

This is the first report comprehensively describing NDSS. It covers:

• the original concept of using health care administrative databases to track disease burden in a population;
• studies that have demonstrated the feasibility and validity of the concept;
• activities directed towards assessing and improving provincial/territorial capacity to participate in NDSS;
• strengths and limitations of the NDSS approach;
• structure and governance;
• a special focus on Aboriginal populations;
• methods of data capture;
• prevalence and mortality data; and
• future plans, including validation of a diagnostic algorithm for diabetes in people under 20 years of age.

Diabetes in Canada - Second Edition incorporates data from the National Diabetes Surveillance System (NDSS) as well as data from other sources. The first edition was published in 1999 by Health Canada. This second edition has been a collaborative effort between Health Canada and the many partner organizations acknowledged in this report.

This report is also intended to highlight the great gaps in our knowledge about diabetes.