'Golden opportunity': One of Australasia’s largest diabetes congresses to drive meaningful change in care

For Dr Ashley Ng, co-chair of the International Diabetes Federation Western Pacific Region (IDF–WPR) Congress, Australasian Diabetes Congress (ADC) and Metabolic Diseases 2026, the combined event represents a chance to drive meaningful change in diabetes care, bringing together healthcare professionals, researchers, people with lived experience, and other stakeholders from across Australasia to improve outcomes in practice.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to connect, exchange ideas and learn from colleagues and leaders not just within Australia but from our neighbouring countries as well,” Dr Ng says.

“Diabetes advocates, clinicians, researchers, industry representatives and policymakers – these combined conferences are a golden opportunity for us to come together and work on the next steps to improve the lives of people with diabetes – the people that we serve.”

“I believe we have a well-rounded program that highlights the different perspectives from each stakeholder, even if it’s not perfect. We’re pretty proud of it.”

That focus has shaped a program designed not just to inform, but to be applied.

Turning insight into practice

Spanning lived experience, education and quality improvement, discovery science, public health and policy, diabetes-related complications, and clinical management, the program is broad.

For Dr Ng, also Head of Education and Professional Standards at ADEA and a Research Fellow at Monash University, the priority is simple: making it useful in everyday care.

“I hope that attendees will take a moment to reflect on all the stories, research and lessons they’ll have learnt from the conference and how they could apply to their own setting and practice,” she says.

“These could be considering a different approach to a challenging situation, leveraging your position for advocacy, thinking about a problem from a different perspective, exploring innovative ideas for working with those affected by diabetes or conducting research, and being inspired to engage with research.”

Dr Ashley Ng, co-chair of the event and Head of Education and Professional Standards at ADEA.

Navigating the program with purpose

With six streams and a wide range of sessions, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. Dr Ng encourages a practical approach.

“Take the time to go through the program before conference day – look for topics that are most relevant to your work or interest and make a note of speakers/authors you would like to hear from,” she says.

“A great piece of advice I once received was also to reach out to those speakers and authors before conference day if you want to connect with them. See if they have time for a coffee.”

For credentialled diabetes educators (CDEs), Stream 2: Diabetes Education and Quality Improvement offers a clear starting point.

“I’m very biased, so I will plug Stream 2, which has been designed specifically for CDEs in mind,” Dr Ng says.

“We have an exciting line-up showcasing incredible work nationally, from our Western Pacific friends and international speakers from Denmark (Professor Mette Rothmann), USA (Barbara Eichorst), UK (Sarah Jennings) and Pakistan (Erum Ghafoor).”

Keeping people at the centre

A defining focus of the event program is ensuring lived experience is not a separate conversation but embedded throughout.

“When shaping the program, the key considerations were to ensure that the topics were relevant

to the diabetes community – that included hearing from those with lived experience, clinicians and researchers,” Dr Ng says.

“While it’s great to have a stream dedicated to lived experience voices, we tried to integrate them throughout the other streams as speakers and session co-chairs as well.”

Dr Ng credits the work of the stream leads and committee members in shaping a program that reflects the needs of a broad audience.

Through regular collaboration, contributors proposed topics and speakers that span clinical and community settings, quality improvement, psychosocial and emotional health, and priority populations.

The committee and volunteers were also involved in reviewing and scoring abstracts, helping to maintain a high standard across oral and poster presentations.

Ongoing discussions during planning also focused on how to meaningfully include priority populations.

“It’s about how we reach those who aren’t considering these perspectives to start thinking about it, without making it into a tokenistic ‘tick the box’ session at a conference,” she says.

Building confidence through connection

Alongside clinical insight, Dr Ng highlights the value of connection as a practical outcome of attending.

“This congress will certainly humble health professionals in the vast number of projects and stories that will be shared,” she says.

“I hope that through humility, this will strengthen our passion in the work that we do.”

“By speaking with others, we gain confidence from the impact our work leaves.

“Networking in itself is a great skill to have, and what better way to build on that than at the conference.”

More importantly, those connections extend beyond the event itself, with Dr Ng saying the event’s value lies in what happens after.

“When you leave from the congress, you should have a handful of people who you can keep in touch with either as a mentor or a friend or new colleague with a shared special interest,” she says.

“These networks you form and build now can keep you motivated, engaged and supported throughout the next phase of your career.

“In that sense I hope that each contact an attendee makes will end up having an impact somehow. It’s the ripple effect.”

Key trends shaping diabetes care

Across the program, Dr Ng points to several key shifts shaping diabetes care.

“The key ones would be diabetes mental health care being a priority, early stage type 1 and its screening and treatment is an emerging topic, and adjunctive therapy alongside insulin,” she says.

Dr Ng is also looking forward to sessions aligned with her own research interest in supporting young adults through life transitions, including the Young Onset Diabetes session.

She points to highlights such as the Abbott Case Study Competition, which showcases the impact of diabetes technology in practice, alongside sessions about communication, diabetes mental health, and a joint diabetes in pregnancy session.

She also highlights the value of oral presentations and posters as an opportunity to see emerging work from across the field.

For those considering attending, Dr Ng’s message reflects the open and collaborative spirit of the event.

“Please do come and say hi to us at the stand or when we’re running around. We’re happy to chat and we’re open to your feedback and suggestions,” she says.

“If you’re looking for ways of getting involved, we can help with that too. Bonus points if you bring us the best dad joke to keep us (or me at least) going!”

To learn more and register, please visit the event’s website.