What do three decades mean to you? In absolute terms, 30 years is a serious amount of time. If you're under the age of 40, for example, it's the vast majority of your life. But in the world of medical research, where studies can take many years to complete--and even longer to affect everyday practice--three decades can go by surprisingly quickly.

So it was with some astonishment that I noted the 30-year anniversary of the beginning of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, the landmark study that established modern diabetes treatment protocols. The study began in 1983 and wrapped up 10 years later. A companion study, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications, has followed participants in the DCCT through the subsequent years.