Jaakko Tuomilehto - Curriculum Vitae#
Academic qualifications
- 1973 MD, University of Turku, Finland
- 1975 MA (Sociology), University of of Turku, Finland
- 1975 PhD in Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Kuopio, Finland
Jaakko Tuomilehto's research interests include the epidemiology and prevention of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. He has coordinated numerous scientific research projects and contributed many landmark studies e.g. the North Karelia Project in Finland, the first community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program
Jaakko Tuomilehto's research into etiology of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease showed that all cardiovascular risk factors and unhealthy lifestyle habits that predicted cardiovascular events predicted dementia. This prompted to design a specific lifestyle intervention trial, FINGER (FINnish GERiatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) which showed positive results following lifestyle intervention. He initiated the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) that demonstrated a 58% reduction in incidence type 2 diabetes (T2D) with lifestyle intervention.
He was the Principal Investigator of the WHO DIAMOND Project mapping the incidence of childhood T1D worldwide during the 1990s including >100 countries.
He has been involved in studies attempting to find out the role of genetic factors in chronic disease aetiology with the main focus on diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors.
He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Primary Care Diabetes journal and Editorial Board member in many other scientific journals.
Organizing Committee Member or Faculty Member in more than 80 International Postgraduate Courses, Seminars, Workshops and Scientific Conferences. >130 PhD theses supervised and/or completed from his projects.
Steering Committee Member in >40 International Collaborative Studies and Research Programmes.
Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
