To be a teacher, a tutor and a friend: The physician's role according to the Stockholm Diabetes Intervention Study (SDIS)

The Stockholm Diabetes Intervention Study (SDIS) showed that lower blood glucose levels led to halted or retarded microvascular complications in patients with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes mellitus (IDDM), Modern education was combined with tutoring, which led to improved blood glucose control in a randomized group of patients. In this setting, the expert-physician met an expert-patient in a mutual effort to make the patient able to live his daily life according to the wishes he had, without too much special consideration to the diabetes. The goals of the treatment were thus to improve the daily quality of life of the patient while keeping the HbA1c sufficiently low to avoid severe complications. The physician has to accept a new role as a teacher and tutor, and as such a caring but still professional friend.