Conference report: 51st European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting 2015

Five decades of progress – and counting This year 1209 abstracts were accepted out of a total of 2067 submitted. The scene for the meeting was set by the President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Prof. Andrew Boulton (UK), who considered the past, present and future of aspects of diabetes care and research. Prof. Boulton revisited the early days after the formation of the EASD when a primary aim of treating diabetes was to prevent glucosuria ‘at all costs!’ (see EMPA-REGOUTCOME trial below). The audience was reminded of the pre-haemoglobin A1c, pre-insulin pump, pre-self monitoring of blood glucose era – very much within living memory of many practising clinicians – when only three classes of glucose-lowering drugs were available: sulphonylureas, biguanides (of which only metformin has survived and indeed thrived) and insulin (bovine and porcine in various formulations with different – and generally rather suboptimal – pharmacokinetics).