Better care for people with diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases

To mark the launch of new journal Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology, Editor-in-Chief Meng Hee Tan tells us more about advances in the field, and how the journal will help promote better care for people with diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases.

On June 10, 2015 a new peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal, collaboratively published by University of Michigan and BioMed Central, was launched. Our vision for Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology (CDE) is to share new research and clinical findings in diabetes, endocrine and metabolic  diseases with health professionals, so that ultimately, their patients with these diseases can have better care.

Why do we need another diabetes and endocrinology journal?

The doubling rate of medical knowledge in 1950 was estimated to be 50 years, in 1980 it was 7 years and in 2010 just 3.5 years.

Though we do not know specific rates for diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases, we know that knowledge in this sub-specialty is growing rapidly. In such a fast-moving field, it is important to ensure that the new knowledge uncovered by research and clinical practice globally is readily available.

Advances in the field

Over the last 9 decades, 11 classes of glucose-lowering medications were discovered. These medications help improve glucose control in many diabetes patients and, in so doing, hopefully delay the onset and slow the progression of diabetes complications in their eyes, kidneys and nerves.

At the recent 75th Anniversary Scientific Meeting of the American Diabetes Association, new knowledge from research and clinical practice were presented. These include, but are not limited to, data from clinical trials of new classes of glucose-lowering medications; new formulations of basal and rapid-acting insulin analogs; debate on the value of using new insulin formulations in the management of type 2 diabetes; and understanding why new onset diabetes occur in patients after organ transplantation.

During the same week, on June 9 and 10, the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended approval a new class of drugs – the PCSK9 inhibitors – that lower LDL-cholesterol (bad cholesterol) more than statins.

A protein produced by liver cells, PCSK9 binds to the LDL-receptors on liver cells and breaks them down so fewer LDL-receptors are available to clear LDL-cholesterol. In 2003, French scientists first described patients with “gain of function” PCSK9 (due to gene mutations in their PCSK9). These patients had very high LDL-cholesterol and high risk for heart attacks.

In 2005 other scientists described patients with “loss of function” (again due to gene mutation in their PCSK9). They had low LDL-cholesterol and less heart disease.  Basic, clinical and epidemiological research that followed in a decade led to development of this new class of drug to lower LDL-cholesterol.

Advances in diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases must continue in many frontiers so that the burden of diseases can be decreased both for individual patients and for society as a whole.

Advances in diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases must continue in many frontiers so that the burden of diseases can be decreased both for individual patients and for society as a whole.

Our launch articles include a review by Hahr and Molitch  on the guidelines for managing high blood glucose levels in the large group of patients with diabetes, complicated by various stages of kidney impairment.

In upcoming issues, we will feature, amongst others, ‘Management of Macroprolactinomas’, ‘Potential Role of Incretin Therapy in the Hospital Setting’, and ‘Association of Dyslipidemia and Obesity with Glycated Hemoglobin’.

Why publish open access?

Clinicians and scientists continuously report new knowledge: on molecular markers of diseases and development of specific treatments that target these markers; mapping genes related to diseases; guidelines on evidence-based diagnosis and treatment; managing these diseases in the digital age; improving adherence to therapy; and real-life treatment outcomes of large number of patients.

To have a global impact, new knowledge uncovered by research and clinical practice must be readily available and freely accessible to health professionals worldwide. In the era of open access journals, we chose to publish Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology as an open access journal to make its content readily available online and free, with authors owning the copyright of their papers.

Publishing in CDE will enable our authors to share their new knowledge with health professionals around the world. The readers, in turn, can use the new knowledge to provide better care for people with diseases of the endocrine system.

From idea to patient, translational research spans the spectrum from basic science, to clinical research, to clinical trials, to approval by regulatory agencies for drugs and devices.  Our papers will cover clinical, translational, health care, epidemiology and health services research.

We hope that these papers will come from contributors in developing and developed countries for our readers around the world. With this in mind, our distinguished international editorial board has experts from 20 countries across 5 continents.

When offered the opportunity to work with these experts, I accepted the challenge to serve as the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of this new ‘learn and let learn’ health professional journal. Together, we aim to promote better care for people with diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases globally.

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