Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Martin has studied human medicine at the universities Essen und Düsseldorf. After his postdoc fellowship at the Harvard Medical School in Boston he specialised in internal medicine, endocrinology and diabetology. His current position is the director of the West-German Centre of Diabetes and Health and chief physician for diabetology of the Catholic Hospital Group Düsseldorf. He has published more than 140 peer review papers in different fields of medicine. His current scientific interest is the development of new forms of medical care, including telemedicine, to prevent and treat chronic diseases with lifestyle interventions. He is a member of the council of experts of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the president of the foundation “Motivation for Lifestyle Changes – Chance for Diabetes” a foundation in the German Diabetes Foundation. He received several scientific awards as the Frerichs-Prize of the German Association for Internal Medicine, the Ernst-Friedrich-Pfeiffer Prize of the German Diabetes Association and the Bennigsen-Foerder-Prize of the state North Rhine-Westphalia.