Prof. Jaakko Tuomilehto

Professor Jaakko Tuomilehto, MD, MA (sociology), PhD, FRCP(Edin), FESC

Professor Emeritus of Public Health at the University of Helsinki, Finland

His research interests include the epidemiology and prevention of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, but also cardiovascular disease and dementia. He has coordinated numerous scientific research projects and contributed many landmark studies and involved in epidemiological studies in many countries around the world.

He initiated the ground-breaking Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) that demonstrated a 58% reduction in incidence type 2 diabetes (T2D) with lifestyle intervention. This finding was later confirmed by similar trials from many countries, including USA and India. These experiences were used to design and the first-ever national diabetes prevention program in Finland. Prof. Tuomilehto served as the Chair of the planning committee for this national programme. He is recognised the most prominent person in the area of prevention of T2D globally. He developed a simple, non-laboratory T2D risk score FINDRISC (FINnish Diabetes RIsk Score) that has been validated and applied widely in Europe and elsewhere.

He set up and was the Principal Investigator of the WHO DIAMOND Project mapping the incidence of childhood T1D worldwide during the 1990s including >100 countries. This is still the largest ever research project in T1D. His studies showed that Finland has the highest incidence of childhood-onset T1D in the world. In addition, he has carried out many studies investigating the prognosis and complications associated with T1D.

He also established the collaborative DECODE/DECODA (Diabetes Epidemiology-Collaborative analysis of Diagnostic Criteria in Europe/Asia) studies that have assessed the glucose criteria for the diagnosis of diabetes and the importance of postprandial glucose for detection and prognosis of disturbances of glucose regulation.

He has received >30 prestigious scientific awards, including those from the European Association of the Study of Diabetes, American Diabetes Association, Diabetes Epidemiology Award, and UNESCO–Hellmut Mehnert Diabetes Award. He has been acting as a member several international committees on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He is the President of the World Community for Prevention of Diabetes Foundation. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Primary Care Diabetes journal and Editorial Board member/Associate Editor in many other scientific journals.

He has been a faculty member in many international postgraduate training courses on diabetes and cardiovascular disease in many parts of the world. He has trained over 130 doctoral fellows, many of them have been appointed to highly recognised positions. He has contributed to over 2000 scientific peer-reviewed publications. In the recent citation analysis by AD Scientific Index among all scientists he ranks as #15 globally and #3 in Europe; among the scientists in the field of Medical and Health Scientists he ranks as #3 globally and #1 in Europe. His h-index is 290 with total citations of 488 000.