Dr Paul Van Crombrugge works in both the Department of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases and the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the O. L. Vrouw-Ziekenhuis teaching hospital in Belgium, where he is heavily involved in diabetes management, care and research. His current areas of research include in-hospital management of hyperglycemia and the implementation of efficient regional multidisciplinary diabetes care.

Dr Van Crombrugge's many involvements in the field of diabetes include member of the Flemish Diabetes Association, for which he served a 4-year term of presidency; member of the Steering committee of the Belgian Diabetes Register and collaborator in the Diabcare Quality Network Project. Dr Van Crombrugge is also involved in the Flemish Diabetes Project, which aims to introduce nationwide multidisciplinary workshops to improve diabetes care and in a project that aims to evaluate the regional impact of introducing a structured shared-care approach for Type 2 diabetes. He is coordinating the workgroup Diabetes and Social Issues of the Belgian Diabetes Association and serves as an expert for the European Union on matters of driving licences for people with diabetes. He participated in the development of Diabetes Guidelines in Belgium and in the International Diabetes Federation/World Health Organization (IDF/WHO). He is one of the cofounders of IQPED Belgium (the Initiative for Quality Promotion and Epidemiology for Diabetes).

The lack of structured diabetes care is what Dr Van Crombrugge considers to be an important issue in patient management and a concern in current diabetes care. He also feels that the insufficient knowledge of some healthcare providers regarding current and up-to-date diabetes care, their failure to implement these new insights into care and the tendency to focus diabetes care on glucose control only, without considering the other factors involved, are also important concerns regarding current diabetes care.

Dr Van Crombrugge thinks that the way to improve the quality of life in patients with diabetes is to educate them, enabling them to deal with their diabetes more effectively. He feels that there is a clear lack of support for diabetes education and diet counselling in Belgium (and in many places) at the moment. He is a strong believer that patient empowerment and a shared-care approach are key elements to avoid diabetic complications.