Global Diabetes Survey--an annual report on quality of diabetes care.

Adequate quality of diabetes care and the best concept for the implementation of national diabetes plans remain controversial. In September 2011 the United Nations High Level Meeting on Non Communicable Diseases agreed on a consensus that national plans for the prevention and control of diabetes should be developed, implemented and monitored. The Global Diabetes Survey (GDS) is a standardised, annual, global questionnaire that will be used to assess responses of representatives from 19 diabetes-related stakeholder groups. It was designed with the goal of generating an annual report on the quality of national diabetes care and to compare findings from different regions and countries. The findings will be freely available for everyone's use and will be used to inform politicians and stakeholders to encourage the improvement of the quality of diabetes care in its medical, economical, structural and political dimensions.

Comparative analysis of conventional and an adaptive computer-based hypoglycaemia education programs.

Adaptive interactive computer-based education programs which can be personalized to patients' needs and skills might be more suitable for patients' training as compared to conventional ones. We tested whether there are differences between an adaptive and a conventional version of a computer-based hypoglycaemia education program concerning successful training and user friendliness. One hundred and twenty randomized diabetic patients were enrolled in this study. The two different programs were compared by using the following criteria: (1) the number of actions needed to get out of or prevent hypoglycaemia, (2) the need for external help, (3) the average time needed for completing one task and (4) user friendliness as determined by a questionnaire. Patients using the adaptive computer-based hypoglycaemia education program needed less actions to get out of or prevent hypoglycaemia, less external help and less time to finish tasks. Furthermore, the user friendliness of the adaptive computer program received a significantly better rating by the patients. The adaptive computer-based hypoglycaemia education program shows significantly better results as compared to a conventional one. Therefore, using adaptive computer-based programs might be helpful for education of patients.

The pedigree tool: web-based visualization of a family tree.

We describe the development of a novel tool that facilitates the design and visualization of pedigrees using a special Internet application. The tool is programmed in Java, using a PHP script as an interface. This web-based tool is used to generate, edit, and/or view pedigrees. The advantage of our novel tool is that it is based on a notation that allows the representation of any given number of generations, family members per generation, and multiple clinical or genetic features of an individual family member. In addition, the notation allows us to minimize the storage space by 100% to 500% and to standardize the presentation of family trees and segregation analysis for inheritance of mendelian disorders or even complex traits. This pedigree tool has been implemented with a database of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) mutations (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/innere/tshr/).

The thyrotropin receptor mutation database: update 2003.

In 1999 we have created a TSHR mutation database compiling TSHR mutations with their basic characteristics and associated clinical conditions (www.uni-leipzig.de/innere/tshr). Since then, more than 2887 users from 36 countries have logged into the TSHR mutation database and have contributed several valuable suggestions for further improvement of the database. We now present an updated and extended version of the TSHR database to which several novel features have been introduced: 1. detailed functional characteristics on all 65 mutations (43 activating and 22 inactivating mutations) reported to date, 2. 40 pedigrees with detailed information on molecular aspects, clinical courses and treatment options in patients with gain-of-function and loss-of-function germline TSHR mutations, 3. a first compilation of site-directed mutagenesis studies, 4. references with Medline links, 5. a user friendly search tool for specific database searches, user-specific database output and 6. an administrator tool for the submission of novel TSHR mutations. The TSHR mutation database is installed as one of the locus specific HUGO mutation databases. It is listed under index TSHR 603372 (http://ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au/~cotton/glsdbq.htm) and can be accessed via www.uni-leipzig.de/innere/tshr.