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A patient takes a blood glucose test

Canada has taken a leading role in global research funding to combat the diabetes epidemic, Thomson Reuters data reveals.

A ranking of the top 35 funders of diabetes research placed the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in fifth place, behind three U.S. agencies and China's National Natural Science Foundation, which came in second.

"That is obviously very strong representation," said Chris King, editor of Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch, which compiled the data.

"That top-five appearance shows that Canadian institutions do seem to be taking an active and appropriate interest in funding what's obviously a very widespread and serious health problem."

ScienceWatch parsed roughly 200,000 international research papers from January, 2008 to July, 2013, identifying funding acknowledgments in the literature. It found that the CIHR funded 2,281 of those reports, or roughly 1 per cent of the total global output, while the top-ranked U.S. National Institutes of Health accounted for 13,436, or 6 per cent.

An estimated 3.3 million Canadians (9 per cent of the population) have diabetes, according to the Canadian Diabetes Association. By the next decade, the estimated diabetes prevalence is expected to rise to 4.8 million people, or nearly 12 per cent of the population.

"Every hour of every day, 20 people are diagnosed with diabetes in Canada," a spokesperson with the association said in an e-mail.

There is hope on the horizon, as indicated by research trends tracked by Thomson Reuters Web of Science.

In June, a Thomson Reuters report forecasting the top 10 innovations for the year 2025 predicted that Type 1 diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children and young adults, would become preventable within the next 11 years. That prediction was based on citations in scientific journals regarding advancements in genetic engineering.


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This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with Thomson Reuters.  The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.

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