Diabetes: silent pandemic costing 20 billion a year, Italia focuses on ecosystems

2. Digital - telemedicine, Artificial Intelligence and data interoperability for more personalised care.

3. Health - prevention, obesity and diabetes at arm's length, with person-centred multidisciplinary models.

4. Research and Innovation - innovative medicines, digital devices and personalised medicine, with fair access and outcome-based evaluations.

"With an estimated economic impact of EUR 20 billion a year on the National Health Service," explains Salvatore De Cosmo, President of FeSDI, "diabetes can no longer be managed at the clinical level alone: we need a systemic innovation engine, capable of integrating research, digital, prevention and governance.

The Italian strategy also focuses on new laws and projects, such as the Pella Law on obesity, the first 'National Diagnostic Programme for Adolescents at Risk' and the idea of including sport in medical prescriptions to encourage healthy lifestyles.

'Diabetes is a social disease,' says Senator Daniela Sbrollini, 'that impacts the lives of patients and the health economy. Prevention and physical activity must become concrete tools, also promoted through incentives and targeted policies'.

"Strengthening prevention policies, improving access to care, promoting healthy lifestyles, and supporting innovation in diabetes management. These, according to Professor Raffaella Buzzetti, president of the Italian Society of Diabetology (SID), are the streams of intervention. "In order to beat this silent pandemic, we must overcome fragmentation: only by linking clinics, innovation, digital and health policies can we guarantee personalised care and equal access to all patients," says Buzzetti. And FeSDI has already scored some important successes along these lines: such as the abolition of AIFA note 100, which simplified the prescription of some innovative therapies. On the to-do list now stands the enhancement of physical activity as a therapy. 'FESDI,' recalls Buzzetti, 'supports the inclusion of the prescription of physical exercise among the tools of prevention and treatment of the SSN. Because exercise is not only prevention but a real therapy for many chronic diseases."

Fiaso and Federsanità also made a contribution to this high-level brainstorming of the States General. "There is a need for an overall 'holistic' approach that starts from the territory and includes all the figures that can intercept the need: GPs, specialists from other branches, the school, but also the relatives themselves,' comments Giuseppe Quintavalle, president of Fiaso. There is an important submerged area to be intercepted. And the Case di Comunità will work in close collaboration with specialists, also at second and third level (for a care approach based on complexity and intensity of care). But alongside this, there is also a need for social support and to ensure that these people are followed up and brought closer to correct lifestyles, that there is a monitoring of data and continuity of care, which is not only pharmacological, but also takes charge of the psychological aspects: often behind obesity or poorly treated diabetes there are situations of social deprivation, which we must bring out. No longer healthcare as an end in itself, but healthcare geared to the overall needs of the citizen'.

"The States General are an opportunity to reflect on one of the main problems of the NHS, namely the management and care of people with diabetes," comments Fabrizio d'Alba, president of Federsanità. It is an emblematic case, which sets the standard, because by rethinking the care network, professional networks, and integration networks for diabetes care, we will have skills, knowledge, and models that can also be used for other chronic diseases. Our NHS and welfare find their great limit of action in sustainability. Thinking natively about activities as integrated helps to ensure the sustainability of the system. As president of Federsanità we have worked a lot on hospital-territory integration. But diabetes teaches us that it is necessary to push the integration between healthcare and social care even further, because this condition requires great attention to lifestyles; and this means that even non-healthcare figures can collaborate to improve people's lifestyles, adherence to therapies, and information. If diabetes becomes everyone's heritage in terms of knowledge, we will be able to intercept these people sooner, in a state of need that will require a lower-intensity and less onerous assignment'.

The States General on Diabetes 2026 is therefore confirmed as a laboratory of ideas and alliances: because diabetes is no longer just a medical issue, but a field on which to test innovations, prevention and sustainable strategies for the entire health service in Italia.