American Diabetes Association

The American Diabetes Association (ADA), founded in 1940, provides diabetes education, research, and advocacy. The mission of the ADA is “to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.” The ADA has two types of members: healthcare membership for professionals such as physicians, nurses, and research scientists, and consumer membership for people with diabetes and their families.

The ADA research-funding program complements the diabetes research program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by supporting new investigators and new research ideas. In 2005, the ADA provided over $40 million in research funding for peer-reviewed research projects on topics ranging from cell biology and transplantations techniques to education and behavioral issues. Besides the usual professional medical journals, information about ADA-funded research is disseminated through Forefront, a journal published twice per year, which contains profiles of researchers and their discoveries, written for a general audience. Access: Diabetes Research, also written for a general audience, is published irregularly by the ADA and contains summaries of recent diabetes research from medical journals. Each issue of Access focuses on a particular topic, such as blood glucose control or diabetic heart and blood vessel disease. Both Forefront and Access are accessible through the ADA Web site, as is other information about ADA-funded research and applications for ADA research funding. The ADA Research Database is also accessible through the ADA Web site: the Web site interface allows the user to search for ADA-funded projects by a number of fields, including topic, grant type, researcher, and start and end dates.

The Government Affairs and Advocacy division of the ADA works to improve access to medical care, promote government funding of diabetes education and research programs, and fight discrimination against people with diabetes. ADA Advocacy goals for 2006 included protecting state diabetes insurance programs; fighting the federal Association Health Plan legislation, which would have allowed small businesses to deny health insurance coverage for diabetes supplies; establishing the National Diabetes Prison Coalition to improve healthcare for inmates with diabetes; developing standards of employment for people with diabetes; establishing the Diabetes Legal Advocacy Fund; and protecting/restoring federal funding for diabetes research.

[Page 25]Obesity is a major concern for the ADA, because it is a major risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, a disease which is rapidly increasing in the United States, yet can frequently be prevented, delayed, or controlled through lifestyle changes, including dietary changes and increased physical activity. The ADA website includes information for the general public about risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, information about pre-diabetes (a condition which frequently precedes diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes), and suggestions on how to make changes in dietary and physical activity habits. The ADA also promotes a number of community events to raise funds, increase public awareness of diabetes, and promote activities known to delay and control Type 2 diabetes, including the annual Tour de Cure (a bicycling event) and America's Walk for Diabetes.