Prof. Juliana Chan (5th right), director of CUHK’s Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, was invited by a prestigious medical journal The Lancet to co-chair The Lancet—Clinical Diabetes Commission and to explore with 25 international diabetes experts from different regions on diabetes trends in five years.

A large body of knowledge has been amassed over the past three decades about the causes and consequences of diabetes. Many prevention strategies have been proven to be efficacious in controlled settings. The current challenge lies in translating these evidences into practices, and in identifying priorities for actions and knowledge gaps where data are lacking to guide practice and policy especially in low and middle income countries.

Professor Chan convened the Commission Meeting in Hong Kong last year and this May, working with other commissioners from around the globe on four main themes on diabetes including disease burden, prevention, treatment and economics. The Commission discussed the research direction, analyzed the data collected, and hopefully will publish their research findings on The Lancet by June 2018.