CD SKILLS Improving celiac disease management in the Danube region by raising the awareness, improving the knowledge, and developing better skills
CD SKILLS project is addressing existing challenges of healthcare sector in Celiac disease (CD) management in the Danube region.
CD is a lifelong systemic reaction against gluten found in wheat, barley and rye. It can occur at any age, but usually starts in early childhood. Women are affected twice as common as men. Without a very strict exclusion diet, severe complications can develop. More than 1% of population (about 1.2 million) in the Danube region could have CD, with much larger population affected indirectly. It has an impact on families and friends, as well as on childcare institutions, food producers, catering service and especially on healthcare sector.
About 80% of patients are diagnosed with long delay or remain undiagnosed, increasing a risk of complications, resulting in high morbidity and mortality, low school performance and high work absenteeism. This has important negative impact on sustainability of healthcare sector and society. Possible reasons are low awareness and knowledge about the disease, limited access to diagnostic tools, limited opportunities for innovative learning and inefficient information exchange.
CD SKILLS aims to overcome these shortcomings to ensure sustainable public healthcare sector, which will efficiently meet health related and social needs of patients and general public affected by CD.
Assessment of regional gaps in CD management will be followed by introduction of innovative learning strategy combining traditional lectures and modern e-tools, development of efficient disease detection strategies, and by innovative pilot services. Multisector transnational network will enable knowledge exchange.
Project activities will raise the awareness, improve knowledge, skills and competences of all stakeholders involved in CD management, effectively improving the capacity of healthcare and social service in the Danube region.
Project capitalizes on projects CE Focus IN CD and SI-HU LQ-CELIAC.

- Start date
- 01-07-2020
- End date
- 31-12-2022
- Budget in Euro
- Overall: 1640110
- ERDF Contribution: 1237540.5
- IPA Contribution: 74800
- ENI Contribution: 81753
- Call number
- Call 3
- Priority
- Innovative and socially responsible Danube region
- Specific objective
- Increase competences for business and social innovation
Library
Project Partners
Name | Type | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
University Medical Center Maribor | Lead partner | jernej.dolinsek@ukc-mb.si | Slovenia |
Municipality of Maribor | ERDF partner | jasmina.dolinsek@maribor.si | Slovenia |
Medical University of Graz | ERDF partner | almuthe.hauer@medunigraz.at | Austria |
Children's Hospital Zagreb | ERDF partner | zrinjka.misak@gmail.com | Croatia |
General University Hospital in Prague | ERDF partner | peter.szitanyi@vfn.cz | Czech Republic |
Project News
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CD SKILLS - Mother from Hungary: “Our early months were not easy; she was a colicky baby”.
- 05-01-2021Szofia is my only daughter, she is 3,5 years old. Our early months were not easy, she was a colicky baby. But she was already 22 months old and still it did not get any better: she didn’t sleep at night, she was irritable and crying all the time,...
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CD SKILLS - Season greetings
- 22-12-2020 -
CD SKILLS - Mother from Hungary: "A swimming trainer suggested to take my son to a doctor".
- 20-12-2020I have a son and a daughter. My son was 11 years old, when his swimming trainer suggested to take him to a doctor. He told me that my boy works well, but still, his muscles don’t grow, and his track results aren’t any better. He did not have any...
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CD SKILLS - The story of Anna: “It never crossed my mind that my daughter might suffer from celiac disease.”
- 09-12-2020My daughter Anna was diagnosed with celiac disease in October 2020, two months before her tenth birthday. I feel desperate, realizing that she has probably suffered from the disease since she was born and that none of the physicians who have seen...
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CD SKILLS - "I have a positive outlook on life" - Maja from Zagreb (Croatia)
- 09-12-2020I was born in the 1970's in Zagreb, Croatia, and one of my first memories, among playing and having fun, were serious digestive issues and complications. My family got rid of all the carpets from our apartment, as my vomiting was frequent and...