Last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a plan outlining their diabetes research strategy over the next decade that will aim to benefit Americans living with, or at risk for diabetes and its complications. At a time when the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes is rising, this commitment to medical research is welcome news for the diabetes community.
Under the plan, NIH identified 10 areas of focus in diabetes research with the greatest potential to improve diabetes treatments and identify ways to keep more people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes healthy. The plan included recommendations sought by the NIH and Congress from the lay diabetes community and diabetes scientific experts, including JDRF.
Many of these areas complement JDRF’s research programs for type 1 diabetes, including goals to accelerate the discovery of autoimmune mechanisms at work in type 1 diabetes, and research into biology of insulin-producing beta cells. NIH is also dedicating research toward the development of artificial pancreas technologies to improve management of blood glucose levels, and the prevention of complications of diabetes including blindness, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and nerve damage.
Furthermore, NIH will continue to emphasize clinical research in humans, which has already led to effective methods of managing diabetes and preventing complications. This includes a study conducted by the NIH’s National Eye Institute and the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR) that showed that a drug, when combined with the current standard treatment of laser therapy, improved vision significantly for people with diabetic eye disease. Clinical trials supported by the NIH on artificial pancreas systems and its components like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) have demonstrated improvements in HbA1c and overall glucose control in people with type 1 diabetes.
JDRF and NIH’s shared goals of better treatments and a cure for diabetes underscores the importance of federal programs like the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), which represents 35 percent of all the federal research on type 1 diabetes. Established by Congress in 1997, the SDP supplements annually appropriated NIH-research funding with a mandatory funding stream for type 1 diabetes research. The combination of federal diabetes research funding and private investments through JDRF has created one of the most effective public-private partnerships focused on disease research.
Total costs of diabetes reached an estimated $174 billion in 2007 in the U.S. If current trends continue, a CDC modeling study predicts that one in three Americans may be living with diabetes by the year 2050. And as people with diabetes are living longer, it is through ambitious research programs like the NIH’s diabetes plan that will help lessen, and ultimately eliminate the burden of this disease from our healthcare system.
Although this is great news, we need EVERYONE to join to become an advocate so that we can continue the funding necessary to promote a cure. Please join JDRF advocacy today. http://www.jdrf.org/advocacy OR text ACTION to 37420 No money required - only a willingness to receive periodic emails and forward information to your lawmakers. JDRF makes this easy and very fast. It is a WIN-WIN situation. Our children and adults with type 1 deserve your help.