Korea National Diabetes Program

It is estimated that in 20 years the number of patients with diabetes will be over 6 million. Therefore the importance of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diabetes needs no further emphasis. At the moment, current studies demonstrate that mortality has increased twofold in the last 10 years due to lack of adequate control, and that medical expenses related to diabetes is increasing. Therefore, the necessity to find means for effective prevention and management of diabetes seems pressing. However, unfortunately, in Korea, results of systematic clinical trials carried out in the Korean population are not available. All the currently available management guidelines have been formulated based on the results of clinical trials carried out in other populations, on patients with perhaps different characteristics compared to ours. There are quite a number of problems in applying these guidelines to our patients. This study's purpose is to create a basis on which we could establish effective prevention, diagnosis, and therapeutic plan based on specific characteristics of Korean patients with type 2 diabetes.