Iranian Journal of Diabetes and Metabolism
Year:2020 | Volume:20 | Issue:1 (Special Issue, 25th Anniversary of the Foundation)|Papers Count:9

Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) was established in 1993. EMRI has progressed step by step from the beginning and has reached maturity in the last 25 years. EMRI has expanded, advanced in human resources and infrastructures (laboratories and new technologies) and gained first rank in endocrine research in various fields. It has also worked with regional and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), and the American Clinical Endocrine Society (AACE). This article provides an overview of EMRI activities over a quarter of a century.

Background: Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) is one of the largest research institutes in Iran, which has been established to develop research strategies and manage endocrine and metabolic diseases such as diabetes. The purpose of this report is to review and summarize research activities related to diabetes over a quarter of a century at EMRI. Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE was conducted to find diabetesrelated studies in EMRI. After extracting the data, the articles were classified according to the type of article, the level of evidence, the types of diabetes and their subject. Results: After eliminating duplicates and screening, finally 228 articles were classified. Most diabetes research conducted at the Diabetes Research Center (DRC) was on type 2 diabetes (37%). By article type, most of the articles were original. In addition, clinical studies provided the most evidence in the obtained documents. By topic, most of the articles were related to the basic sciences and factors related to diabetes, followed by studies on the management and prevention of diabetes. Conclusion: Most of the research conducted in the Diabetes Research Center in the past quarter of a century is of original studies in the field of basic sciences in the field of type 2 diabetes and most of the evidence produced is related to observational studies.

Background: Osteoporosis is one of the most important health problems in the country due to fracture. Osteoporosis Research Center with more than 20 years of experience in this field tries to present achievements and activities of the management and treatment of osteoporosis in the country while introducing this center. This review aims to overview the osteoporosis research center activities on osteoporosis. Methods: In these conventional review national and international databases were investigated on osteoporosis without any restriction on time and language. Also, other activities that are not reflected in the papers were obtained from the professional website and official reports. Results: According to the strategic plan of the osteoporosis research center, the achievements of this center provided in in three areas of research (population-based studies, clinical studies, basic science studies and health system studies), technology (diagnostic, therapeutic technologies, service delivery models) and education (training students at different levels of education). Supplementary, patient education, general education, and service provider training). Conclusion: Osteoporosis Research Center is recognized as the only specialized research center in the field of osteoporosis in the country. The center is trying to improve its position as a regional center in the field of osteoporosis by relying on its strategic and operational plan, in addition to maintaining its current position.

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the major cause of premature death and disability due to diseased globally, imposing a heavy burden on the health systems. Four main categories of NCDs are cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. Iran, the second greatest country in the Middle East Region, has been through an important transition period of communicable diseases toward NCDs in the last decades. One of the effective approaches to control NCDs is implementation of populationbased studies and interventions, trying to reduce risk factors and incidence of NCDs through investigations in the populations. Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) and Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center (NCDRC) are the pioneers trying to study and control various NCDs during the last decades in Iran. In this review, we are going to inspect some of the major completed and ongoing projects of this research institute to highlight valuable efforts to reduce burden of NCDs in Iran, and make a successful example for national and regional public health policy makers and authorities.

Background: Identifying the risk factors for the health of the elderly and designing interventions to improve the health of the elderly is one of the priorities of the health care system in the world today. This first requires the promotion of scientific knowledge in the field of health problems of the elderly. Methods: In this review conducted in 1399, all studies with the keyword of aging or age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, diabetes, dementia, frailty, cognitive impairment, daily life function, nutritional status with organizational affiliation of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research center or the Elderly Health Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were reviewed without time limit in databases, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scalar search engines. Results: A total of 115 studies were found with these keywords. By examining the sampling, method, data analysis and also the removal of similar data, 63 articles were reviewed. Conclusion: In this regard, the Elderly Health Research center has conducted several studies to localize tools for assessing the health of the elderly, identifying common diseases of the elderly, the prevalence of diseases and syndromes of the elderly and designing several interventional studies in the form of three large studies Kahrizak elderly study, Bushehr elderly health study and Birjand elderly longitudinal study has been discussed in this review.

Background: In many years, finding modern and appropriate treatments for diseases, especially chronic diseases (such as chronic metabolic diseases) have been one of the most important issues. On the other hand, limitations related to organ transplantation have made a serious need for advanced therapeutic strategies. In this respect, researchers have recognized the benefits of stem cells as a suitable tool. Accordingly, the application of stem cells for the treatment of various diseases has been considered in many countries around the world especially Iran. Methods: A review of the history of stem cell studies in Iran and the world was conducted and the Cell Therapy and Reconstructive Medicine Research Center was introduced as one of the leading centers in this field and a review was conducted on the activities of this center. Results: The history of studies related to cell-based therapy in Iran back to 1990. Subsequently, the Cell Therapy and Reconstructive Medicine Research Center, by providing services based on GMP principles, has provided clinical services in accordance with international standards and has conducted various researches in this field. Conclusion: The purpose of the current review is to examine the strategies and challenges around the research and treatment opportunities using stem cells in mentioned center.

Background: Precision medicine is a new approach in the field of medical sciences that utilizes the genetic characteristics of each patient along with clinical information to guide decisions related to diagnosis and early treatment of diseases. The Personalized Medicine Research Center, as the only center approved by the Ministry of Health, is working on precision medicine context and producing the related knowledge. Methods: In this systematic review, studies that are conducted at the personalized medicine research center with a precision medicine theme based on specific eligibility criteria and a designed search strategy in three databases PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (Wos) from December 2016 to December 2019 were retrieved. Results: Finally, 18 studies focusing on different approaches of precision medicine in prediction, prevention through “ omics” including genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics were selected for further evaluation. Finally, 18 studies focusing on precision medicine in non-communicable diseases (diabetes) and cancer (prostate and thyroid) were selected for further studies. Conclusion: Since one of the important goals of precision medicine is prediction and prevention, the identified genetic changes can be used for early diagnosis in high-risk individuals. Actually, the initiative studies are needed to meet the goal of precision medicine.

Background: The purpose of this study is to identify patterns of information sharing in the field of evidencebased medicine to determine the main areas of evidence dissemination, including co-authorship patterns and citation networks, and to provide a scientific horizon for improving evidence-based medical research in Iran. Accordingly, evidence-based medicine related research at the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences is suggested. Methods: This study is a bibliographic study using scientometric methods. In this regard, the network of coauthorship and analysis of scientific articles indexed with the subject of evidence-based medicine in the Scopus database from 2004 to 2019 were analyzed. Results: The status of scientific production of evidence-based medicine of Endocrinology and Metabolism research Institute has been increasing in recent years. The Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders contains a great collection of information about evidence-based medicine in this field and its contents have been widely cited in many Iranian journals. In lexical analysis, the most widespread evidence was osteoporosis. Conclusion: The results indicated that evidence-based medical research topics are widely focused on other medical fields such as osteoporosis and obesity and have shifted from evidence-based clinical practice to evidence-based clinical management.

Background: A key aspect of Scientific collaboration increases scientific productivity. This study aimed to draw up a scientific collaboration network of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute (EMRI) at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study was conducted by the Scientometrics method. Data collection from the Scopus and Web of Science Core collection databases between 2002 until 30 October 2020. MS-Excel, HistCite, VOSviewer, and ScientoPy were used for descriptive statistics and data analysis. Results: A total of 4190 records with the affiliation of the EMRI are indexed in two international databases. All of the records received a sum of 89480 citations. The EMRI Researchers were published in 1118 journals. The annual growth rate of publication and citation of the scientific output of the EMRI was 20. 3% and 22. 7%, respectively. A total of 17662 authors from 186 countries participated in the publication. The coauthorship pattern shows. The next section of the Study was classified and visualized based on authorship (institutes and country of affiliation), keywords (co-occurrence and trend). Conclusion: Overall, these results indicate that the pattern of collaborations in the authorships' articles increases the flow of knowledge among the institute's researchers as a result of international collaborations, interaction with leading countries, and interdisciplinary collaborations. To develop a full picture of coauthorship, additional studies will need a comprehensive picture of network cooperation to analyze the situation with other social network analysis indicators.