Diabetes is everybody’s business, including people with diabetes and their significant ones as well as those who provide care and pay for care. It is a complex condition that can hit people of any age, gender, race and from all walks of life, irrespective of socioeconomical status, occupations and education levels.

One in 10 people is living with diabetes which is one of the root causes of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, cancer and dementia. Collectively, these chronic diseases account  for 80% of all global deaths. Globally, 800 million people are living with high blood glucose and 8.4 million have type 1 diabetes who need insulin to stay alive.

The heterogeneity of diabetes is due to complex interactions amongst ancestral, genetic, lifecourse, environmental and cognitive-psychological-behavioral factors further influenced by access to and quality of care. There are ongoing discussion on subtypes of diabetes and prediabetes to better match the growing portfolio of medications now coming up to more than 10 classes. Meanwhile, the rapid development of devices including automatic insulin delivery (AID) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems continue to transform the life of people with type 1, type 2 and other subtypes of diabetes. We are now at the dawn of precision medicine where we can use new definitions, technologies and strategies to transform and personalize diabetes prevention, treatment and cure.

The DDME programme with professional credit points and quotable qualification was inaugurated in 2005. It is one of the key modules of MEDM which many DDME students subsequently enrolled having been inspired by the intricacy of endocrinology and metabolism as the essence of life. By joining the DDME or MEDM programmes, the acquired knowledge will directly benefit the learners and their significant ones whilst enable them to help people with or at risk of these common conditions live healthier, happier and longer.

At the end of this one-year part-time programme, graduates will have an in-depth understanding of:

• The scientific principles underlying the regulation of glucose homeostasis including actions of insulin and counter-regulatory hormones
• The effective use of diagnostics, devices, digital tools and drugs for diabetes prevention and management
• The rationale and implementation of therapeutic patient education, empowerment and behavior modification with ongoing evaluation
• The importance of care organization with emphasis on evidence-based medicine and continuous quality improvement
• The latest advances in diabetes basic and clinical research and their complementary roles in reducing diabetes complications and improving quality of life
• The interpretation of clinical and laboratory data including biogenetic markers in the diagnosis and management of people with diabetes and prediabetes
• The appraisal of diabetes-related literature and principles of research methodologies for effective application of evidence to clinical practice