Hertzel Gerstein
PHRI Deputy Director and Senior Scientist Hertzel Gerstein received the 2022 Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award, presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA)’s 82nd Scientific Sessions today in New Orleans.
He came on stage to receive the award plaque from Bob Gabbay, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at ADA. Just prior to that, a short video was played with Gerstein commenting on the changes in the field of diabetes.
That clip included Gerstein’s insight, “when I coauthored the book, Evidence-Based Diabetes Care in 2001, the title was more aspirational than reality; today, we’ve come a long way to understanding how to treat and prevent diabetes.”
Hertzel Gerstein walks off the stage in New Orleans at the ADA 82nd Scientific Sessions with his Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award, presented by Bob Gabbay, ADA’s Scientific and Medical Officer.
The honor “recognizes exceptional contributions in patient-oriented clinical outcomes research that have had a significant impact on diabetes prevention and treatment,” ADA writes.
“Dr. Gerstein co-led the first cardiovascular trial with a large diabetes cohort (MICROHOPE) and his discoveries related to ACE-inhibitors, thiazolidinediones and insulin have been transformative in understanding diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes.”
The lead of the diabetes research program at PHRI, Hertzel Gerstein pioneered and firmly established international long-term patient-important cardiovascular outcomes trials as the norm for clinical diabetes research. His trans-disciplinary perspectives and collaborations enabled him to design and lead many such trials, that collectively included more than 90,000 people with either diabetes or pre-diabetes.
These trials have substantially expanded the evidence-base pertaining to the prevention and treatment of diabetes and its consequences, and some of the findings have provided the evidence base for international diabetes guidelines and novel drug indications that have improved the lives of people living with diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Also given the Canadian Diabetes Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Hertzel is an endocrinologist and Professor at McMaster University and holds the Population Health Research Institute Chair in Diabetes. He is also Director of the Boris Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
His research has been published in more than 550 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and commentaries, in high impact journals; his h-index is 94.
In 2016 he wrote and produced a widely viewed music video to help mitigate the impact of diabetes on affected people and their families.
