The International Diabetes Federation Atlas (http://www.diabetesatlas.org) reports that 285 million people aged 20-79 years globally have diabetes, a disease impacting most countries. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, diabetes affects 23.6 million people or 7.8% of the U.S. population. It is no wonder, then, that millions of dollars are spent every year to fund research that will treat and perhaps cure the disease.
Certainly, endocrinologists and a host of other specialty physicians participate in basic and clinical research sponsored by government entities, academic institutions, professional societies and biopharmaceutical companies. However, primary care physicians (PCPs) are also widely involved in diabetes research. The diversity of patient populations and illnesses treated by PCPs make them desirable investigators, especially when the research seeks to understand diabetic co-morbidities, how the disease affects different populations, and better ways to help patients manage their diabetes.
Thought Leader Select recently studied the research activities of more than 150 primary care thought leaders (TLs) in the United States and identified several interesting trends about their research activities in general, as well as those related to diabetes research. We found that 86% of primary care TLs are regularly involved in basic and clinical research efforts. Of those 134 actively conducting research, more than half are involved in diabetes-related projects (see Chart 1). More than half of the TLs involved in research also hold permanent research roles, such as investigators with research institutes/organizations or heads of academic research departments. Indeed, many of the PCPs studied held diabetes-related research appointments, including postitions with the following diabetes research groups:
- VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative for Diabetes Mellitus
- Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center
- Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Clinical Research Center
- Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center
- International Behavioral Research in Diabetes Group Exchange (BRIDGE)
- University of Chicago Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC)
- University of Texas Health Science Center of San Antonio Diabetes Studies
- East Harlem Diabetes Center of Excellence (funded by the New York State Department of Health)
On average, the primary care TLs studied participated in 24 studies and held 15 principal investigator roles. The diabetes topics most often studied by this group of U.S. thought leaders include:
- Novel treatments for Type 2 diabetes
- Diabetes and cardiovascular risk
- Diabetes prevention
- Obesity and diabetes
- Chronic disease management
- Glycemic control
- Pre-diabetes
- Improving risk factors for diabetes complications
- Quality of diabetes care
