During the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Diabetes Association various diabetic centres presented their success and failure rates with respect to metabolic control and prevention of late complications in diabetic patients on a country-wide basis. The analysis revealed that only 30% of all type I diabetic patients are adequately controlled. Intensive education in diabetes self-management, capable of leading to optimal metabolic control in up to 50% of the instructed patients, is however available only to a small minority of the diabetic patients to date. Despite the enormous improvement which has been achieved in the management of pregnant diabetic women, intensive specialized care is often commenced far too late. In rural areas, in particular, even conventional therapy is not fully implemented and late complications are, thus, inevitable.