Assessing Remote Confirmation of Type 1 Diabetes

Launched by ROYAL DEVON AND EXETER NHS FOUNDATION TRUST · Feb 10, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This study (ARC-T1D) is checking whether it’s practical to test a person’s own insulin production from a home finger-prick blood sample. Researchers want to see if a simple at-home kit, mailed to patients treated for Type 1 diabetes, can reliably be used to measure C-peptide (a marker of how much insulin their own body still makes). They will send kits to about 1,500 patients from a hospital diabetes clinic, ask participants to collect a small blood sample 1–5 hours after a meal, and send it back with a glucose reading. The main thing they’ll look at is how many people return the samples within four weeks. If this remote testing works well, it could help clinics across the UK identify patients who might not need insulin anymore in the future.

Who can take part? Adults aged 18 and older who have a Type 1 diabetes follow-up code (or who progressed to insulin within 3 years of diagnosis) and have had diabetes for more than 3 years, and who are under the care of the diabetes team at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Exclusion happens if the care team thinks you should not participate. If you’re invited and you consent, you’ll do a short home test (about 10 minutes), mail back the blood sample and your glucose result, and have no direct treatment from the study. The goal is to learn whether remote C-peptide testing could become a routine option and help identify people who might be able to stop insulin, potentially benefiting thousands across the UK. Results are not yet available; the study is currently enrolling by invitation.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Patients with a Type 1 diabetes follow up code OR rapid progression to insulin (within 3 years of diagnosis) to capture miscoded cases.
• • Under the clinical care of the diabetes team(s) at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• • Duration of diabetes \>3 years
• • Aged 18 years or older.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Patients considered by their clinical care team to be unsuitable/inappropriate to be invited to take part in this research (e.g. severe sight impairment, reduced capacity to consent)