Translation Efforts in Diabetes and Pregnancy

The Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has responsibility for improving the rapidity and extent of transfer of validated diabetes research findings into the practice of medicine. Three key words in this goal are rapidity, extent, and validated. The time between identification of important research findings and implementation in practice must be as short as possible, and all components of the health-care system must be aware of these findings. Furthermore, the research observations must be supported by the general scientific community. As an example, when evidence of the efficacy of photocoagulation was established, i.e., validated (1,2), this information needed to be quickly incorporated into practice, i.e., rapidity (3), by all components of the medical community, including primary-care practitioners and patients, i.e., extent (4).