NIH Support of Research and Education on Diabetes

Thursday, August 11, 2005

General Session

Speaker
Allen M Spiegel, MD

Reported by Joelle Escoffery, PhD

Diabetes educators are key members in the team approach to diabetes care, the key purpose of which is to help people with diabetes. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) support a wide range of research efforts in conjunction with a variety of other institutes within NIH, including institutes of allergy and infectious diseases, child health development, neurology, heart and lung, aging, and nursing. These research efforts begin with knowledge acquisition, with includes both basic research (eg, genetic determinants of β-cell failure, the basic physiologic actions of insulin) and applied research (eg, development of continuous glucose monitoring devices and new pharmacologic agents). The next step in the process is knowledge validation, which moves further down the research continuum to clinical trials and other clinical investigations. Demonstration and education research assists in the transfer of knowledge acquired, and the final step in the process is knowledge dissemination.

In the arena of type 1 diabetes, there are a number of ongoing research activities. Ongoing studies are investigating the genetic susceptibility of type 1 diabetes (eg, the Type 1 Diabetes Genetic Consortium) and the influence of inciting events (eg, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young). TrialNet and the Immune Tolerance Network are both geared toward the prevention and reversal of type 1 diabetes. The β-cell Biology Consortium (CBCB) and the Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry (CITR) have been developed to further treatment of type 1 diabetes.

There is also a wealth of ongoing research in the area of type 2 diabetes. Research efforts focused on prevention include Studies to Treat Or Prevent Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes (STOPP-T2D) and the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS). There are also a variety of treatment studies, such as the Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) to investigate the best way to treat the growing numbers of children and teens with type 2 diabetes. Additionally, a joint effort between the NIDDK and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is addressing the obesity and diabetes link with studies such as the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Study and the Action For Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD). This results and implications of these efforts are disseminated via the National Diabetes Education Program.