• SDRI observed a significant milestone in 2019; the Institute’s 75th anniversary. SDRI celebrated 75 years of medical progress at the Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito with our first ever gala. SDRI was established in 1944 by world-renowned medical pioneer Dr. William Sansum, the first American to successfully manufacture insulin in the United States and administer it to patients with diabetes.

• A multicenter randomized clinical trial evaluating a new artificial pancreas system — which automatically monitors and regulates blood glucose levels — has found that the new system was more effective than existing treatments at controlling blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes. The trial, based partly at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, was primarily funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. The system, called “Control-IQ”, improved participants’ blood glucose control throughout the day and overnight. The latter is a common but serious challenge for children and adults with type 1 diabetes, since blood glucose can drop to dangerously low levels when a person is asleep. The research is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• SDRI began the first Artificial Pancreas study in the United States for pregnant women. The National Institutes of Health awarded the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a clinical research consortium made up of specialists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Mayo Clinic, and SDRI, a R01 grant to develop and evaluate a pregnancy-specific Artificial Pancreas in a sequence of in-clinic and transitional environment clinical trials.

• A first of its kind diabetes and pregnancy clinical trial, the LOIS-P, is named after Dr. Lois Jovanovic, SDRI’s former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, who laid the foundation for the current worldwide standards of care in diabetes and pregnancy. The team of researchers hopes these first-in-the nation studies will lead to improved patient and fetal outcomes, better care and reduced patient burden.

• SDRI earned national accreditation from the American Diabetes Association for excellence in providing diabetes self-management education and support.

• We launched the full-scale Mil Familias project: a 10-year, first-of-its-kind study to understand the causes of the Latino diabetes epidemic and what we can do to end it.

• We launched an innovative Farming for Life project, prescribing organic vegetables to low-income residents living with type 2 diabetes.

• SDRI launched Diabetes Pueblo, a promotores led pilot program that introduced important updates to the Ocho Pasos curriculum, including new standards for diabetes care and a discussion around culturally specific barriers to diabetes medications.

• The American Diabetes Association created an award in honor of Dr. Lois Jovanovic, The Lois Jovanovic Transformative Woman in Diabetes Award, and the recipient was Elizabeth R. Seaquist, MD. She was recognized as someone who made a significant impact in diabetes care, research, education, or public health.

• SDRI and Harvard researchers report positive trial results with an Artificial Pancreas smartphone app. The results of a new clinical trial have shown the safety and efficacy of the interoperable Artificial Pancreas System smartphone app (iAPS), which can interface wirelessly with leading continuous glucose monitors (CGM), insulin pump devices, and decision-making algorithms.

• SDRI performed eleven travel trips, to test which long acting insulin, Tresiba or Lantus, does better countering the effects of jet lag on blood sugar during long haul travel. Clinical trial participants with type 1 diabetes traveled to Hawaii, then to New York City, back to Hawaii and finally to California.

• The Artificial Pancreas team at SDRI recently had an abstract published in Diabetologia from the recently completed Tandem PROLOG study. The abstract, presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Berlin, Germany, highlights the benefits of the Tandem Basal-IQ system in preventing hypoglycemia.

• SDRI received funding from the Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation for a Living Biobank which will store and manage approximately 60,000 local human bio specimens. Resulting analysis will serve Santa Barbara County and society in general by providing local and national researchers necessary biomedical data to improve the health outcomes for Latinos in the US.

• SDRI collaborated with UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management to use SDRI data, big data, and maps to explore the relationship/s between diabetes and pollution exposures in California,

• SDRI had 8 posters accepted to the 79th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, highlighting our robust translational diabetes research from this past year. 

• SDRI was one of the selected sites to run clinical research trials for Drawbridge Health for the OneDraw A1C Test System, comprised of the OneDraw Blood Collection Device and the OneDraw A1C Test that was recently approved by the FDA.

• SDRI recently received American Diabetes Association (ADA) recognition for our diabetes education program. The ADA endorses specific standards required for obtaining recognition in order to promote quality education for people with diabetes, and we look forward to continuing to improve our evidence-based, comprehensive, and person-centered education programs.

• SDRI celebrated the graduation of 17 new diabetes health educators better known as, “promotores.” The promotores are vital to many of SDRI’s education and research programs; the intense training in diabetes education enables promotores to teach diabetes education and nutrition classes, perform A1C’s and biometrics, and provide support with research studies.

• SDRI was recognized by the YMCA for outstanding collaboration. SDRI is in the second year of partnership with the Channel Islands Association YMCA to offer the CDC Diabetes Prevention Program in English and Spanish.

• Congressman Salud Carbajal joined members of the local health and Latino communities gathered at SDRI earlier this month for a discussion about diabetes and how to improve access to healthcare in the Latino community.

• SDRI was recognized by Sun Life U.S. as a 2019 “Team Up Against Diabetes” grant recipient for its innovative Farming For Life program, providing prescriptions for free organic vegetables to Santa Barbara County residents living with type 2 diabetes.

• SDRI's OneTalk T1D Support Group drew prestigious speakers including Dr. Bill Polonsky, Dr. Steve Edelman, Katie DiSimone, device companies, and many more! Hundreds of people were reached through our T1D programs in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

• Throughout 2019, our researchers gave presentations both internationally and nationally on a wide range of subjects from diabetes digital health to diabetes and pregnancy.

• To view our publications for the year please visit our website here.