Incorporating the Results of Diabetes Research Into Clinical Practice

Abstract

JUDITH WYLIE-ROSETT, EDD, RD 6 I n our July issue, Dr. Roland Hiss pre-sented the paradigm of the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Cen-ter's (DRTC's) approach to the difficulties and opportunities of translating the re-sults of clinical studies into clinical prac-tice (1). As the DRTCs reach their 25th anniversary, it seems appropriate to re-view their progress in understanding and improving the translation of clinical trials into clinical practice. I have asked the co-ordinators of translation research of the six DRTCs to briefly summarize their ap-proaches and successes in this area, which follow. It is important to note that the DRTCs began in 1977 in an environment where we knew that there were huge gaps be-tween the results of clinical trials and clin-ical practice, but we knew little about why those gaps existed, nor did we know how to close them. In large measure our progress in translation research and our successes in translating the subsequent landmark clinical trials into practice are and will continue to be a result of the re-search conducted by the DRTCs. All of the DRTCs have made vital contributions to this area of research. We present their experiences in alphabetical order.