The heterogeneity of type 2 diabetes is characterized by many mechanisms and influencing factors. In their award-winning work, the researchers used an innovative algorithm to gain new insights into the diversity of the disease based on routine clinical data from people with type 2 diabetes – particularly with regard to insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, fat distribution and pro-inflammatory characteristics.
This allows to identify people at an early stage who have reduced insulin production in the first five years after being diagnosed with diabetes or who have an increased risk of inadequately controlled high blood pressure or lipometabolic disorders. In addition, risks of premature mortality and diabetes-related complications can be specified.
Personalized therapy approach
“The new algorithm marks a decisive advance in precise diabetes management. Being able to classify affected people into specific risk groups based on simple clinical data opens up new possibilities for tailored prevention and treatment approaches. This brings us a significant step closer to precision diabetology,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Michael Roden, Scientific Managing Director and Spokesman of the Board of the DDZ and Director of the Clinic for Endocrinology and Diabetology at the Düsseldorf University Hospital (UKD).
“In order to map the diversity of type 2 diabetes and the variability of diabetes progression, an online tool for the algorithm was developed and validated as part of the German Diabetes Study (GDS), which can already be used in everyday clinical practice,” adds Prof. Dr. Robert Wagner, head of the Clinical Study Center working group as well as deputy director of the Institute of Clinical Diabetology at the DDZ and senior consultant at the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology at the UKD.
The online tool is available at the following link:
https://atn-uod2018.shinyapps.io/Prediction_diabetes_outcome_18082021/
The annual Prevention Award is handed out by the DGIM and the DSIM for outstanding scientific work from German-speaking countries that contributes to the prevention of internal diseases.
About the person:
Dr. Martin Schön completed his medical studies at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, where he also completed his doctorate in normal and pathological physiology in 2019. He has been working as a study doctor at the Institute for Clinical Diabetology at the DDZ since 2020. At present, he completes his further training as a specialist in internal medicine, endocrinology and diabetology at the Clinic for Endocrinology and Diabetology at the Düsseldorf University Hospital under Prof. Roden.
In 2024, he was awarded the Karl Oberdisse Prize of the North Rhine-Westphalian Society for Endocrinology and Diabetology, the Silvia King Prize of the German Diabetes Association (DDG) and the Hans and Gertie Fischer Foundation Sponsorship Award.
The German Diabetes Center (DDZ) serves as the German reference center for diabetes. Its objective is to contribute to the improvement of prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. At the same time, the research center aims at improving the epidemiological data situation in Germany. The DDZ coordinates the multicenter German Diabetes Study and is a point of contact for all players in the health sector. In addition, it prepares scientific information on diabetes mellitus and makes it available to the public. The DDZ is part of the Leibniz Association (Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, WGL) and is a partner of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.). www.ddz.de/en
