National clinical audits as distributed diabetes surveillance infrastructure: Consensus lessons from Ireland
Seif El Hadidi, Sean F. Dinneen, Gintare Valentelyte, Lauren Churchill, Nuala P. Murphy, Karina Hamilton, Edward W. GreggAbstract
Background
Diabetes increasingly shapes acute‐care demand through cardiovascular disease, critical illness, frailty, stroke and preventable metabolic emergencies. Yet in health systems without mature diabetes registries, much of this burden may be visible only indirectly through national clinical audits and registries.
Aim
To assess how Ireland's National Office of Clinical Audit (
Methods
A structured narrative review of publicly available
Results
Diabetes‐specific reporting was recent and uneven. The 2022 paediatric diabetes feasibility study identified 3332 children and young people with type 1 diabetes across 19 centres, with major variation in multidisciplinary staffing, transition pathways,
Conclusions
National clinical audit infrastructures may function as distributed chronic disease intelligence systems even in the absence of mature integrated diabetes registries.