Background
Type 1 diabetes is a serious health condition that lasts a lifetime, affecting around 300,000 people in Canada. Managing type 1 diabetes every day and dealing with its complications can be challenging for both those who have type 1 diabetes and their caregivers. In Alberta, there is no clear guidance or a ‘care pathway’ for type 1 diabetes regarding how to access treatments, care transitions from childhood to adult, or how to manage challenges of type 1 diabetes.

Our research team is developing a detailed view of type 1 diabetes in Alberta. Referred to as a “type 1 diabetes atlas,” it will contain information on how many people are living with type 1 diabetes and how many are diagnosed each year, what are their characteristics, such as their age, sex, etc.; what kind of health services they use, for example, primary care visits, visits to specialists/diabetes clinics, and hospitalizations. As we develop this atlas, we would like it to include information that people living with type 1 diabetes and their care givers would find useful and have it accessible in one place.

We hope to create an advisory group of people with lived-experience expertise of accessing and navigating type 1 diabetes treatments and care in Alberta to work with our team of researchers and doctors. The AURORA advisory group will help the research team to look at the data within the type 1 diabetes atlas in a way that is meaningful to people with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers. Together, we will co-design a website with all the information we identify as helpful for navigating type 1 diabetes care in Alberta (a knowledge hub).

Roles and Responsibilities
We are looking for an advisory group of adults with type 1 diabetes (18+ years), adolescents with type 1 diabetes (12-19 years), and caregivers of children (2-12 years) and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Advisory group members need to be either diagnosed with type 1 diabetes or have experience caring for a person with type 1 diabetes for a minimum of 2 years.

The advisory group will work together with our research team to look at our data, contribute with lived-experiences-expertise about type 1 diabetes care and challenges in Alberta, and provide their expert advice to co-create the Alberta’s type 1 diabetes knowledge hub.

The AURORA group will meet online with the research team four times during the year. As research partners they will join a meeting to set priorities with members of the healthcare community, type 1 diabetes researchers, and other interested people. They will also participate in three workshops to co-create the plan for the knowledge hub.

We will provide important training about the research project and related processes to all research partners.

Time Commitment
This project will take one year. It will start in May 2025 and end in May 2026.
The AURORA group will meet online four times a year for 1-hour long meetings. The priority-setting meeting is an in-person full-day meeting that will be held at the University of Alberta. Each of the three workshops are 2-hours long and will be held online.

Members of the AURORA group are expected to attend at least two online workshops, 2 online 1-hour touchdown meetings and one in person meeting.

Compensation/Reimbursement
A $25 gift card will be offered for attendance at each quarterly one-hour meeting, A $50 gift card for each online workshop, and a $200 gift card for the in-person full-day gathering of interested parties. Travel expenses to attend in-person events will also be covered.

For more information or to express interest, please connect with
Dr. Padma Kaul
Aurora25@ualberta.ca