The German diabetes self-help and its view to personalised medicine- the development of diabetes self-help in Germany since 2011

The Diabetes Self-Help of the state North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW) exists since 1975 as an independent association. Till 2012 it was member in the German Diabetes Federation called Deutscher Diabetiker Bund (DDB). On 8 June 2012 in Berlin there was founded a new patient organisation called Deutsche Diabetes-Hilfe – Menschen mit Diabetes (German Diabetes Help – People with Diabetes) with the abbreviation DDH-M. This organisation works in the umbrella organisation diabetesDE – Deutsche Diabetes-Hilfe on the same level with the Association of Diabetes Specialists (Deutsche Diabetes Gesellschaft (DDG)) and the Association of the Diabetes Counselling Professions (Verband der Diabetesberatungsund –schulungsberufe (VDBD)). The Diabetes Self-Help Organizations of NRW and three other German states became members of DDH-M. Reasons for this change from DDB to the new organisation DDH-M were a better and closer cooperation with other umbrella organizations, specialist associations, scientific and social institutions as well as politicians and the possibility of networking with these team players.