Dr Arai is co-author of ‘Combination Therapy with a Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitor, Sulfonylurea, and Metformin Markedly Improves HbA1c Levels in Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus’, recently published in Japanese Clinical Medicine.  We asked Dr Arai to tell us about the background to the paper.

To start please tell us about the genesis of your paper.  Why did you consider it to be important that it should be written?  How does it advance existing knowledge in the field?

We have experienced effective treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) using triple combination therapy such as sitagliptin, metformin and sulfonylurea. We wondered whether the effectiveness of the treatment was coincidental or whether there was a common character in triple combination therapies. We thought we may have a new insight for new therapeutic regimen of T2DM, thus we wrote this case report.

When writing a paper what challenges do you face?  How did these challenges impact this particular paper?  Is there anything you plan to do differently in the future to avoid them?

There are very few journals that would accept case reports which contain a proposal for therapy for a very rare disease. Initially, we did not have any idea how we could find an appropriate journal to publish in.

Why did you choose to submit your paper to this journal?  What qualities of the journal did you find particularly appealing?  How long have you been aware of the journal?  Did publishing a paper in the journal alter your view of it?

We asked our colleges and friends to suggest appropriate journals which accept case reports. One of our friends told us about Japanese Clinical Medicine. We then consulted one of the Japanese Clinical Medicine Editors in Chief to ask whether our case report was suitable for the journal and he recommended that we submit the case report.

What is your opinion of other papers recently published within the subject area of your paper?

We are almost satisfied with our paper, even though it is a case report.

How has the writing of this paper and its underlying research changed or developed your views or understanding of the field?

We are developing an understanding of this theme (triple combination therapies) and planning a prospective study to confirm our idea.

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