A screening test found Imogen's diabetes before it could ambush her

Imogen Norman, 12, did not feel ill when she joined a research study at Birmingham Children's Hospital. The ELSA study — Early Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes — was screening children for the earliest signs of type 1 diabetes, and it found them in Imogen. Because the disease was caught early, she could be offered teplizumab, a drug that calms the immune system and can delay the need for insulin for years. Imogen and one other patient at the hospital are the first in the UK to receive it this way. Today, many young people are only diagnosed when they arrive in hospital seriously ill with a complication called diabetic ketoacidosis. 'Being forewarned is being forearmed,' said Imogen's mum Amy, who has type 1 diabetes herself. The study, led by the University of Birmingham and co-funded by Diabetes UK and Breakthrough T1D, aims to make that early warning ordinary.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation