Below we’ve recapped three recent diabetes research interviews that you may have missed, featuring NIDDK Director Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers and experts from the Institute’s Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases (DEM). The goal of these live social media events was to share research advances and emerging opportunities in diabetes care and management with a wider audience—patients, researchers, and health care professionals alike. Check out the links to the recordings below, and be sure to like and follow the NIDDK on Facebook so you can be notified about our next Facebook Live event.

Helping People Who Have Diabetes Improve Health and Reduce Complications

Dr. Rodgers and NIDDK DEM Director Dr. William Cefalu discussed the different types of diabetes, diabetes management, and signs that someone is at risk. Dr. Cefalu also discussed lessons learned in diabetes research and patient care. “We need to understand how to effectively design research studies,” he said. “We have to listen to patients, and we have to learn from patients as to what issues are important.”

Improving the Health of Adults and Youth Who Have Diabetes Through Research

DEM Program Director Dr. Barbra Linder and Dr. Rodgers discussed groundbreaking diabetes research designed to improve public health like the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study, the Treatment Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) study, and the Glycemic Reduction Approaches in Type 2 Diabetes: A Comparative Effectiveness Study (GRADE).

Dr. Linder shared her thoughts on the SEARCH and TODAY studies, including these lessons learned: “SEARCH and TODAY suggest that we may need to take a more aggressive approach to treating type 2 diabetes in youth. Since the emerging data suggests that this disease is progressing more rapidly when it occurs at a young age, perhaps we need to start treating with two drugs instead of just using one drug.”

She also discussed how federally supported research on type 2 diabetes in U.S. youth helped highlight the emerging problem and defined it as a distinctly different disease than adult-onset type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes Research to Advance Findings and Public Health Among At-Risk Groups

Dr. Rodgers and DEM Program Director Dr. Christine Lee discussed how research is advancing public health in at-risk groups. Dr. Lee shared information from the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program trial and its long-term outcomes study, DPPOS, in addition to discussing the new Rare and Atypical Diabetes Network study (RADIANT).

“This is a multisite study that is trying to find people with new forms of rare and atypical diabetes and to study them so that we learn what makes them different and why, and help them better understand their disease,” she said, “both for the patients that are struggling with these rare diseases as well as their providers who are struggling to help them take care of their diabetes.”

What topics would you like to see covered in our Facebook Live events? Tell us in the comments.