It has been a year since the last circular! The DIAMOND Project has been growing, not only in the number of participants but also in activities. What follows is an update of the current status and future directions.
A DIAMOND investigators meeting was held on June 13 during the 1994 American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Representatives of 14 centers together with several investigators interested in joining the project attended the meeting. As usual, the status of each of DIAMOND components was discussed followed by a brief report by the local investigators.
The seventh meeting of the DIAMOND Steering Committee also took place in New Orleans. Copies of the minutes are available by request to the Coordinating Center in Pittsburgh.
A DIAMOND workshop will take place in Kobe, Japan during the International Diabetes Federation Congress this November. It will consist on presentations of the different subprojects and an exhibition of posters by the local centers interested in participating. We hope to see you there!
- Local MOO's
Currently, 101 of 158 participating centers have sent a local MOO for the incidence study. Centers that have not sent a local MOO should submit it to the Pittsburgh Coordinating Center before December 1994 to continue being part of the DIAMOND Project.
- Incidence Study
Thus far, 72 centers have sent population data and 65 centers incidence data. A publication including the incidence data from 1990 and 1991 will be prepared. We encourage centers to submit these data to the Coordinating Center in Helsinki by the end of September, 1994.
- Genetics
Data from the case control molecular epidemiology studies are becoming available. There are 7 centers taking part in the NIH grant: Alabama, Allegheny County, China, Finland, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Abstracts have been submitted to the International Diabetes Epidemiology Group, Himeji Symposium 1994 from the centers that are complete. Another 10 centers are using the same protocol and also have data available.
Samples for the family studies of affected patient-child families have been collected in Estonia, Northern Sweden, Finland and Hungary. Two new centers, one in Bulgaria and another in Romania have joined the studies.
- Socio/Economic
The protocol of the socio/economic subproject will be finished by September of this year. A survey evaluating methods of payments for insulin, outpatient visits, etc. and type of diabetes care and treatment available in different geographic areas will be sent to DIAMOND participants by October, 1994.
- Mortality
The Methods of Operation for the Mortality Study will be ready by August of this year. Centers that have expressed an interest in this subproject will be contacted at that time. We will also be completing a paper on the mortality procedures of DIAMOND.
- Training
Two DIAMOND training courses were held since the last circular: the 1st Latin American Diabetes Epidemiology Course, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina during October, 1993 and the King Saud University First Diabetes Mellitus Epidemiology Course, held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from January 29 to February 3, 1994. Both training courses were a great success.
The 2nd Japan-US course is being planned for August 1995. It will be held in Hawaii, with 25 participants and 20 faculty members. Additional information could be obtained from Dr. Naoko Tajima (Third Department of Internal Medicine, Jikei University, School of Medicine, 3-25-8, Nishishinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105, Japan. Phone: 81 3 3433 1111 ext. 3249. Fax: 81 3 3459 1417. E-mail address: NTAJIMA@JPNSUT01.BITNET).
- Complications
A new subproject regarding complications has been incorporated to the DIAMOND Project. The protocol was sent out to all the investigators in the DIAMOND project the first week of July, 1994. If you have not received your copy, please contact Dr. Trevor Orchard at the coordinating center in Pittsburgh (Rangos Research Center, 5th floor, 3460 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa 15213, U.S.A. Phone: 412 692 5200. Fax: 412 692 8329. E-mail address: TJO@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU).
The paper updating the incidence data available worldwide has been published in Diabetologia (1993, 36:883-892). An incidence paper with the data from 1990 and 1991 will be prepared during the next few month. We encourage centers to submit their data to the coordinating center at Helsinki (Dr. Jaakko Tuomilehto or Marjatta Karvonen, KTL, National Public Health Institute, Dept. of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, Mannerheimintie 166, FIN 00300 Helsinki, Finland. Phone: 358 0 474 4305. Fax: 358 0 474 4338. E-mail address: JAAKKO.TUOMILEHTO@KTL.FI).
In Circular 5 (May, 1991), nominations for rotating members of the DIAMOND Steering Committee were requested. As very few responses were received (many from non participant members), and most of the individuals nominated themselves, they were disregarded. A new questionnaire is included with this circular. Each center is allowed to nominate investigators from any participating center, other than their own. The deadline for receiving these nominations is October 15, 1994.
We would like to encourage centers to be in contact with us electronically. Please send a message to Dr. Ingrid Libman (IML1@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU) to be a part of our electronic mail list.
Prepared by Dr. Ingrid Libman
Deadline: October 15, 1994.
Name:
Center:
Nominees for rotating Steering Committee members (vote for up to three individuals from participating centers other than your own).
Name
Center