Pediatric Diabetes Unit

The Clinic

The clinic is fully stuffed by an experienced and specialized team with high standards of training and big experience that constitutes by 3 paediatric endocrinologists – diabetologists, 1 psychologist – diabetes educator, 1 nutritionist, 1 paediatric dentist, nurses – diabetes educators, as well as the other subspecialties of the hospital.

The Clinic supports, hospitalizes, trains and follows more than 300 children and adolescents annually with type 1 diabetes mellitus (insulin dependent), type 2 diabetes mellitus, MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young) and problems of glucose intolerance (insulin resistance) that come to the outpatient clinic or get hospitalized with acute complications of the disease e.g. diabetic ketoacidosis or are getting followed up regularly.

Applying almost exclusively intensified insulin treatment or insulin pump the stuff of the clinic collaborates with similar clinics from abroad: Yale Medical School (professor: W. Tamborlane) and MGH for Children/Harvard Medical School (Professor: L. Levitsky), King’s College of London, with which exchange visiting programs and special seminars have been instituted.

Services
At the Children’s Hospital MITERA, all the tests that are required for the follow up of patients with Diabetes Mellitus can be done, as well as handling complications that are acutely presented to the people with diabetes.

The availability of hospitalization, the full lab and ophthalmological work up as well as the punctual performance of HbA1c make the Children’s hospital MITERA a center of taking care of Diabetes Mellitus.

• Hospitalizing and dealing with children and their families during initial diagnosis.
• Regular follow up visits of children and adolescents with DM T1 and T2.
• Training of the children and their caretakers in the techniques and in matters with relation of taking care of diabetes, by a specialized team.
• Application of cutting edge technologies in dealing with diabetes (insulin pumps, continuous glucose sensing systems)
• 24 hrs telephone coverage for children and their families for emergencies

Connections
The Diabetes Mellitus Team of Children’s MITERA Hospital participates actively in the works of the International Society for Pediatric & Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD, http://www.ispad.org) and of the work group for the Juvenile and Adolescent Diabetes Mellitus of the Greek Diabetes Association (ΕΔΕ, http://www.ede.gr).

Research
Members of the team have participated, in the past, in the following research programs:
VirDiab: Multicentral European Study for the action of viruses in developing type 1 diabetes mellitus. One of the congresses was held in MITERA Hospital.
SmartDiab: In collaboration with the electrical engineering of computers department of the National Polytechnic School of Athens and the Children’s Hospital “P&A Kyriakou” a smart pump was created for the administration of insulin in people with type 1 diabetes mellitus.