There is an ever-growing amount of talk about the Metabolic Syndrome. It is now time to transform some of this talk into action. In order to do this, we must break down some barriers. We need to remove geographic barriers and barriers between different medical specialists. To this end, it has been decided to launch a world-wide, multidisciplinary initiative to tackle the Metabolic Syndrome. There are numerous groups with an interest in the Metabolic Syndrome. These include groups working in the field of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. However, to date, there is no organisation dedicated exclusively to the Metabolic Syndrome. We believe that this is a serious deficiency. It is for this reason that we have decided to create the Metabolic Syndrome Institute.

The Metabolic Syndrome Institute has been charged with 3 missions:

• To increase knowledge about metabolic syndrome
  • To understand the relationship between genetic and environmental factors in causing the syndrome
  • To define the epidemiology and the patient profile in different regions
  • To determine how best to treat the syndrome with lifestyle modification and drug therapies
• To spread this knowledge to Health professionals, government authorities and the general public by means of:
  • Publications
  • Presentations at conferences
  • Development of an educational programme for medical professions and the general public
  • Communications towards the media
• To stimulate and to support research into Metabolic Syndrome

An international scientific committee composed of a 12 members will direct the work performed by the Institute. This committee will comprise individuals whose expertise cover several fields, including:

• cholesterol and other blood fats
• diabetes
• heart disease
• obesity
• genetics
• epidemiology
• health economics
• fundamental research

This committee will be organised by an executive that includes:

• Philip Barter, chairman, Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Heart Research Institute, Sydney (Australia)
• Frank Sacks, Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard, Boston, Masachusetts (USA)
• Rury Holman, Professor of Diabetic Medecine, Oxford (UK).

Institute programme:

Institute members will meet 3 times yearly and be in electronic permanent communication in order to define and implement the working programme. At these meetings they will:

• Agree on a set of recommendations (based on current knowledge) in order to improve the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of the Metabolic Syndrome
• Allocate research grants for clinical trials, clinical and fundamental research and health economics research
• Design necessary epidemiology studies
• Act as a bank for new knowledge about the Metabolic Syndrome

The results of the work performed by the Metabolic Syndrome Institute will be published and widely communicated.

The Metabolic Syndrome Institute provides an international, multidisciplinary approach to an international problem