Elliott P. Joslin

Elliott Proctor Joslin, M.D. (6 June 1869 - 28 January 1962) was the first doctor in the United States to specialize in diabetes and was the founder of today’s Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Joslin was involved for seven decades in most every aspect of diabetes investigation and treatment, save for the fact that he did not discover insulin. Following the Toronto group's blockbuster discovery of insulin in 1921, and the group's disbanding several years later, Joslin became effectively the Dean of diabetes mellitus. In the mid 1920s, Joslin, in his mid 50s, took the reins as the world spokesman for the "cause of diabetes." He was the first to advocate for teaching patients to care for their own diabetes, an approach now commonly referred to as "DSME" or Diabetes Self-Management Education. He is also a recognized pioneer in glucose management, identifying that tight glucose control leads to fewer and less extreme complications.

Elliott Joslin was born to wealthy parents in 1869 in Oxford, Massachusetts where his father was a mill owner. He was educated at Leicester Academy, Yale College and Harvard Medical School. After graduating from Yale, Elliott Joslin extended his time at the university by enrolling in a master's degree in physiological chemistry. This interest in chemistry, along with his Aunt's recent diagnosis of diabetes led him to an interest in diabetes and metabolic disease.

From the beginning of his medical practice he kept a diabetes registry, the first of its kind in the world. His carefully assembled data from his medical ledgers eventually allowed him to predict a global diabetes epidemic that is evident today. In 1908, in conjunction with physiologist Francis G. Benedict, Joslin carried out extensive metabolic balance studies examining fasting and feeding in patients with varying severities of diabetes. His findings would help to validate the observations of Frederick Madison Allen plandregarding the benefit of carbohydrate- and calorie-restricted diets. The patients were admitted to units at New England Deaconess Hospital, helping to initiate a program to help train nurses to supervise the rigorous diet program.

Joslin was an educator at heart and advocated total immersion of his patients and families in classroom education. He felt that careful monitoring of diabetes that rendered good control would allow the patient to avoid chronic complications of diabetes along with prevention of acute acidosis. Joslin included the findings from 1,000 of his own cases in his 1916 monograph The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus, the first textbook on diabetes in the English language. Here he noted a 20 percent decrease in the mortality of patients after instituting a program of diet and exercise. This physician’s handbook had 10 more editions in his lifetime and established Joslin as a world leader in diabetes.

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