An Interview with Professor Steven Edelman

We have interviewed the Editor-in-Chief, Prof Steven Edelman, who was recently honored by the American Diabetes Association with its “Outstanding Educator in Diabetes” award.

Prof Steven Edelman is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

He is Director of the Veterans' Affairs Healthcare System Diabetes Care Clinic, in San Diego, and has an extensive practice at UCSD. He is also the Founder of Taking Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD), a not-for-profit diabetes education organization.

Dr. Edelman is recognized internationally as an expert in diabetes and lectures extensively throughout the United States. He is the author of 5 books and more than 200 journal articles, abstracts, monographs, and book chapters. He serves as Editor for Insulin and reviewer for 11 journals, including Diabetes, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Q: Where/when did you study for your degree and what were your main research interests?
Prof Edelman: I received a medical degree from the University of California at Davis where I was honored to be the valedictorian. I then did my medical residency at the University of California in Los Angeles and furthered my training in endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at 3 different institutions. I did a clinical fellowship at the Joslin and Lahey Clinics in Massachusetts as well as a research fellowship at the University of California in San Diego. My areas of interest are mainly in the areas of prevention of type 2 diabetes, evaluating the effectiveness of drugs and devices for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. I am especially interested in the relatively new area of continuous glucose monitoring. My other major interest is in patient education. I am the founder of a not for profit organization called Taking Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD), which is a patient education and motivational organization. We study self care and behavioral issues that limit successful diabetes management.

Q: How do you think today's students are served by the education system and educators?
Prof Edelman: In the US we have a lot of work to do. The time it takes to transfer information about a new therapeutic strategy or new drug or device takes to long to filter down from the teaching and research institutions to the caregivers, which have to change their practice habits in order for their patients to benefit from an advance in the field. This is one reason I have focused much of my efforts into taking the important messages about living well with diabetes directly to the people most affected by this condition.

Q: How do you think that specialists in the field can make their work more understandable by patients? Should academic/scholarly papers all carry a "plain text explanation" of main findings/conclusions?
Prof Edelman: I am a strong believer that people with diabetes can absorb and understand sophisticated medical information as long as it is presented in an appropriate way! It is so important to educate the PWD on all of the methods to prevent, detect and treat diabetes and the complications of diabetes. I have written a book for PWD that I feel explains all of the important issues around diabetes care in lay terms with a lot of motivation and humor. I feel humor helps with information retention for PWD as well as professionals.

Q: Who, in your opinion, is doing the most interesting/exciting work in your field of science/medicine at the moment?
Prof Edelman: In the area of type 2 diabetes, Drs Robert Henry, Ralph DeFronzo, John Buse and Vivian Fonseca. In the area of type 1 diabetes Drs, Irl Kirsch, George Eisenbarth, Mattias Von Hearth, and Bruce Buckingham.

Q: In your specialty what are the rapidly evolving "hot" areas right now and what might they lead to?
Prof Edelman: Incretins for type 2s and CGM for type 1s. Also there is a lot of going on for the prevention of type 1 with immunotherapy that is exciting.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your career as a scientist/clinician etc? What has s/he done that has been influential on you? 
Prof Edelman: Alain Baron MD was my research mentor at UCSD in 1987 and has been instrumental in my clinical research career, he is now a close friend. Alain's insight for thinking of important clinical projects, designing the experiments and analyzing the results is more impressive than any one I know in medicine. He is also a warm and generous individual - one of a kind for sure.

Q: What has been the most far-reaching change that you have experienced during your career as a scientist/clinician?
Prof Edelman: The explosion of new drugs for people with type 2 diabetes since the availability of metformin in the US in 1995 has made a huge impact. I would have to say the development of GLP-1 agonists like exenatide has started and will continue to make the biggest impact for type 2 diabetes. For type 1 diabetes there is no question that CGM has made the biggest impact since the discovery of insulin.

Q: As you look over your area of science/medicine what are the changes that you might expect to see in 5-10 years time?
Prof Edelman: For type 2 diabetes it is more effective and safe treatments for both glucose intolerance but especially obesity. For type 1 it is closing the loop in terms of successful and safe communication between an insulin pump and a CGM, however the prevention of type 1 and type 2 diabetes may be a reality.

Q: Which area of science/medicine would you most like to know about? 
Prof Edelman: Since I am an endocrinologist with an interest in diabetes, I would like a better understanding in the basic research areas of the defects in type 2 diabetes and the immunotherapy field of type 1 prevention.

Q: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? 
Prof Edelman: Gosh...this is a hard one ...be more well rounded, not work so much, and be a better listener especially with my wife.

Q: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions that you would like to address in the future?
Prof Edelman: Develop a diabetes institute with the primary goal of properly educating others interested in diabetes (patients and providers) so that diabetes care can improve at the community level. I have learned from my experience with my not for profit organization, TCOYD, that the communication between caregiver and the PWD is so important and is the basis for long term successful care.

Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement in your professional life?
Prof Edelman: Founding the not for profit organization TCOYD in 1995 and growing the grass roots organization to an effective national organization helping 100s of thousands of lives through our conferences, TV show, publications and web presence.

Q: What is your most marked characteristic?
Prof Edelman: A combination between a type A person with ADHD and a warped sense of humor.

Q: What is it that you most dislike in your area of medicine/science?
Prof Edelman: Not enough positive reinforcement for younger trainees and I absolutely hate managed care. It is the worst thing that has happened to the field of medicine.

Q: Which topics in your area of medicine/science do you think are under-researched?
Prof Edelman: Patient education and effects of different strategies to make positive changes in self care behavior.

Professor Edelman was interviewed by Peter Fogarty at Dove Medical Press. We have setup interviews with some of our other Editors-in-Chief, so keep a look out for these, they should provide some compelling reading.
 
If there is someone in a specialist field you would like to read an interview about, let us know and we will do our best to arrange it.