Lori Laffel, M.D., MPH, Chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Young Adult Section at Joslin Diabetes Center and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, oversees the largest pediatric diabetes clinic in New England and has over 25 years of experience treating pediatric patients with diabetes. Dr. Laffel is available to comment on two papers recently published in JAMA titled “Association between Seven Years of Intensive Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes and Long Term Mortality" by Trevor Orchard and "Estimated life expectancy in a Scottish cohort with type 1 diabetes, 2008-2010” by Helen Colhoun. Dr. Laffel is the lead author of an editorial on these papers that appears in the same issue of JAMA.
Dr. Laffel is an Investigator in the Section on Genetics and Epidemiology at the Joslin, focusing her research and clinical interests on preventing the late complications of type 1 diabetes and preserving the health, normal growth, development and family functioning of children, adolescents and young adults with diabetes. One of the primary objectives of Dr. Laffel's research is the design, implementation and evaluation of office-based interventions, which are aimed at increasing family involvement in the day-to-day care of youth with diabetes to avert the expected deteriorations in self-care behaviors and glycemic control that usually occur in late adolescence. Additionally, in collaboration with Barbara Anderson, Ph.D., Dr. Laffel pioneered the development and implementation of a cost-effective model of care in which a “Care Ambassador” encourages routine clinic attendance and adherence to diabetes management tasks, such as blood glucose monitoring. These successful research efforts have been translated into the routine clinical care for families of children with newly diagnosed diabetes at Joslin and help to form the basis of national and international initiatives.
Dr. Laffel is actively involved with the American Diabetes Association, as a member of the Boston Leadership Board, the National Board of Directors, the National Committee for Pediatric Guidelines, and she is chair of both the Youth Strategies Committee and the Working Group on Transitions in Care for Type 1 Diabetes. Dr. Laffel lectures at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and serves as an invited speaker at local, national, and international meetings in the areas of pediatric diabetes, childhood obesity, behavioral and outcomes research, and the assessment and translation of new technologies in diabetes. She also contributes to the grant peer review process both nationally and internationally, reviewing for NIH, JDRF, the French Inserm, the Medical Research Council, and the Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation, and she is an Associate Editor for Diabetic Medicine.
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