Chat with your doctor

There are several digital meeting spots for young diabetics. But 'Suikerplein' offers something new. This is a joint initiative by the paediatrics departments of two hospitals in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. These departments joined their strengths and founded a diabetic centre for children (KDCN) and now they built the Suikerplein website. Via this website young diabetics can not only share experiences with each other, but they can also chat and email with their doctors and nurses.

Suikerplein includes a forum for the discussion of public questions and topics with fellow young diabetics and doctors, psychologists, dieticians, or nurses. Apart from the forum, there is also a separate private portal for each child with a chat room through which personal questions can be asked to the treating doctors and nurses. Details related to for example the injection therapy, hypos, etc. can be entered in this private portal. The website makes contact between young diabetics and their doctors more accessible and creates a more open environment of communication through the chat service.


Suikerplein is an example of the recent trend e-health. However, the website should not be viewed as a replacement for the treatment for diabetics, but rather as an addition to their regular medical attention. It should stimulate youngsters to learn to control their treatment themselves and the doctors become their coaches in this process.

Suikerplein is a great initiative, using the internet to improve the medical treatment for young diabetics.