Digital Platform DiabHQ is set to expand

Congratulations to Helen Clapin, DiabHQ Program Manager, and her team from the Rio Tinto Children’s Diabetes Centre at The Kids, who have received a second round of funding from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation to expand the DiabHQ digital platform.

DiabHQ includes a Patient Portal mobile app now available to more than 1300 Western Australian children and families living with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Launched on World Diabetes Day in November 2025 and initially funded by the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, the DiabHQ Patient Portal app was Phase 1 of a broader digital platform – a cutting-edge, integrated system transforming care for children and young people living with diabetes.

Developed in collaboration with the WA Child and Adolescent Health Service and families living with T1D, the DiabHQ Patient Portal has been designed as a “one-stop-shop” to support families’ diabetes care needs. It brings together key features including access to health data (HbA1c trend, growth charts, pathology results), educational resources, appointment management and triage support, and collection of patient-reported outcomes. 

Thanks to this second round of funding, the team is now progressing to Phase 2 of the DiabHQ platform - expanding the Patient Portal to further strengthen self-management through features such as mental health tracking, personalised learning pathways, advanced data visualisation, and integration with wearable devices and continuous glucose monitoring systems. 

The team will also begin co-design of customised Clinician and Researcher Portals, building on existing capabilities to create a shared data platform that connects patients, clinicians, and researchers to accelerate research and translation, enable data-driven care, and continue to empower families in their diabetes management.  

“This next phase of DiabHQ will deliver a fully connected digital ecosystem, expanding its impact for children and families living with T1D,” Helen said. 

“Enhancements to the Patient Portal will include a 24/7 AI-powered assistant and multilingual functionality, helping ensure equitable access regardless of geography, language, or socioeconomic background.”

Helen explained that integration with the Clinician Portal will enable remote monitoring, digitally generated care plans, and secure communication, improving care coordination and efficiency.

“The Researcher Portal will support faster and more equitable recruitment for clinical trials and provide access to high-quality integrated datasets, accelerating discovery and translation of research into clinical practice,” she said.

“At a system level, DiabHQ has the potential to reshape health and medical research by demonstrating the value of interoperable data infrastructure, consumer co-design, and real-time analytics in improving outcomes. It provides a scalable model for national implementation across paediatric and adult diabetes services and offers a blueprint for extending similar approaches to other chronic conditions.”