National Diabetes Surveillance System (NDSS)

The National Diabetes Surveillance System (NDSS), has been in development since 1996 with a broad stakeholder base including the federal and all provincial/territorial governments, non-governmental organizations, national Aboriginal groups, and researchers. This diversity is reflected in the NDSS governance structure. The Surveillance System provides a strategic support function for the Canadian Diabetes Strategy. Following a three-year period of development, NDSS is now in position to improve the collection and dissemination of critical information on diabetes in Canada by facilitating and coordinating the surveillance of diabetes nation-wide, in each province and territory, and among Aboriginal communities.

As a first step, the NDSS will implement a standardized model for the surveillance of certain "core" data. This will yield comparable information on the incidence and prevalence of diabetes, mortality, diabetes -associated diseases, and health-care utilization rates for Canadians with and without diabetes. In time, NDSS will provide baseline data on various aspects of diabetes and its complications, identify high-risk groups/geographical areas, and flag indicators and benchmarks of change (such as reductions in new cases, improvements in the quality of care for people with diabetes and improvements in their health outcomes). The activities of the NDSS, and the information provided by the system will enhance the ability of public health professionals at every level to develop a more accurate picture of the problem. The overall outcome of the NDSS will be an extensive data source that will provide effective planning and evaluation opportunities toward diabetes prevention/control programs, as well as more precise prevalence and incidence data and projections.