After what seems a lifetime of tight glycemic control and a seeming fixation of the adequacy of a glucose of 110 mg/dl, new evidence has emerged that tight glycemic control may increase mortality. The results, published by the NICE-SUGAR Study Investigators from a large international randomized trial was published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine and may change the way we view glycemic control for a long time to come.

If Dr Mayer MD FACS, past president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, is right and the gloomy predictions by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons are accurate, there is a high likelihood that 80 per cent of the existing cardiothoracic surgeons in the US will have all retired by 2020 leaving a field that has been unable to maintain its attraction by surgical trainees over the past 7 years. What does this mean? There will undoubtedly be more jobs than surgeons. Demand will go up. Supply is down…You do the math.

Few meetings sum up the cumulative net worth of gastrointestinal research like the (Digestive Disease Week) DDW. This year, the 50th annual meeting to be held in Chicago, Illinois will surely once again live up to high expectation judging by the program just released. Mark your calendars…May 30 – June 3, 2009.