Dr Oscar B Crofford, MD, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

After serving on the Faculty of Medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA from 1959 to 1995, Dr Crofford has retired from academic life and is currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt. As Chairman of the National Commission on Diabetes, Dr Crofford played a key role in persuading the USA Congress to increase funding for diabetes research and to adopt legislation that led to the foundation of diabetes centers across the USA. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, which was chaired by Dr Crofford, revolutionized the approach to care of patients with type 1 diabetes. This trial, which spawned many important publications, had an enormous impact on the management of type 1 diabetes and has also influenced thinking on the importance of tight blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes.

 

 

Professor Hans-Henrik Parving, MD, DMSC, University of Aarhus, Denmark

In 1997 Professor Parving was appointed Professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Since 1983 he has been Chief Physician at the Steno Diabetes Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally, Professor Parving's group described the potential importance of microalbuminuria as a predictor/risk marker for diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, his group demonstrated the potential role of strict glycemic control in the prevention of microalbuminuria and other microvascular abnormalities. His group was the first to demonstrate that prolonged ACE-inhibition delayed the development of diabetic nephropathy and preserved kidney function in normotensive patients with type 1 diabetes with persistent microalbuminuria. Professor Parving's group has confirmed and extended the original findings of a beneficial effect of antihypertensive treatment on the progression of diabetic nephropathy. More recently, in the Steno Type 2 study, Professor Parving's group has demonstrated that intensified multifactorial intervention delays the progression of microvascular complications in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria. Prevention of diabetic nephropathy and protection against end-stage renal disease in type 2 diabetes patients were documented using angiotensin II receptor antagonist.