During the Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology Lecture, epidemiologist Juliana C.N. Chan, MBChB, MD, FHKAM, FHKCP, FRCP, called on diabetes health care “providers, producers, and payors” to embrace the principles of the 1993 St. Vincent Declaration that outlined and advocated “the use of diabetes centers, diabetes teams, and diabetes registries to bring out the value of our knowledge and technology and make data-driven diabetes care the standard practice to benefit people with diabetes and those at risk of diabetes with precision and affordability.”
Dr. Chan, Professor of Medicine & Therapeutics, Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, made this appeal upon receiving the Kelly West Award from the American Diabetes Association® (ADA) during the 85th Scientific Sessions in Chicago on Sunday, June 22.
In her lecture, “Hong Kong Diabetes Register—Redefining Diabetes and Creating Solutions,” Dr. Chan detailed her decades of data-driven research and her personal experience working with patients in a major metropolis transformed by global modernization.
“The economic burden and human suffering associated with undiagnosed, untreated, and suboptimal managed diabetes is colossal,” Dr. Chan said.
The disease’s genetic and environmental contributing factors, as well as the inter-dynamic it has between mind and body health, compound its status as a medical challenge.
Dr. Chan began unlocking this challenge in the mid-1980s after finishing medical school in the United Kingdom, returning to her home of Hong Kong, and taking a position with the endocrinology department of Prince of Wales Hospital. This was at the beginning of the city’s long handover from the United Kingdom to China, when the population of more than 7 million people was experiencing enormous social and cultural changes that were reflected in daily habits, diets, and self-identity.
Dr. Chan described it as a time of uncertainty that gave her “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about the complexity of nurture versus nature, mind versus body, tradition versus modernity in framing the trajectory of an individual in society—with diabetes at the tip of the iceberg.”
By the early 1990s, Dr. Chan had embarked on key research and clinical approaches that would shape and continue to define her career.
The first was to expand nascent research on Asian phenotypes and diabetes to begin examining specific questions and cases, such as defining the appropriate body mass index (BMI) for various Asian populations, and mapping out the medical history of early onset diabetes and severe diabetic complications of a Chinese family.
At the same time, Dr. Chan studied how policies could affect health. In 1992, she published the first of a series of papers on how structured care with protocols, nurse visits, and monitoring extended patient survival time.
These two research areas would converge in her practice as she began working with and gathering data from more than 200 families with young onset diabetes and a control group for the Hong Kong Diabetes and Family Study. The goal was trying to find ways to identify the disease and, as Dr. Chan said, “prevent the preventable.”
Also, in the mid-1990s, Dr. Chan and her nurse would create what became the Hong Kong Diabetes Register (HKDR), a protocol designed to understand trends, identify care gaps, and inform prevention and treatment.
By 2000, the HKDR would form the basis for a region-wide network of hospital-based diabetes centers, which would go on to form an even larger risk assessment and management program for diabetes.
Dr. Chan’s initial query themes continue to guide her work up to the present, both as a principal author, mentor, and advisor. Her creation of the HKDR has led to platforms and policies that have directly benefited 800,000 people with diabetes by reducing event and death rates.
Dr. Chan’s early interest in the relationship between mind and body is reflected in a recent series of studies focusing on diabetes and depression among young adults. Her ongoing work on Chinese Diabetes Outcomes Model (CDOM) seeks to demo a 15-year-risk prediction on major diabetes complications and death.
Dr. Chan said she has been and continues to be inspired by a saying attributed to Confucious, that one should practice as one learns as a path to secure joy and friendships, But she noted that neither her life nor the lives of her patients are limitless—and thus the sense of urgency for finding the right treatments, and ensuring that they are effectively executed.
Awarded annually since 1986, the Kelly West Award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of diabetes epidemiology. More information about the award and the application process for 2026 are available online.
On-demand access to recorded presentations from the 85th Scientific Session will be available to registered participants following the conclusion of the meeting in Chicago, from June 25–August 25.
Watch the Scientific Sessions On-Demand after the Meeting
Extend your learning on the latest advances in diabetes research, prevention, and care after the 85th Scientific Sessions conclude. From June 25–August 25, registered participants will have on-demand access to presentations recorded in Chicago via the meeting website.