During the 1980s, the Diabetes Control & Complications Trial (DCCT) began, seeking to determine whether intensive blood sugar control would help reduce long-term complications such as vision loss, kidney failure, nerve damage, and heart disease. According to Dr. David M. Nathan, director, Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, tighter diabetes control can reduce these risks by as much as 60-70 percent. In addition, a study published in JAMA revealed that type 1 diabetes patients who have undergone intensive therapy early on successfully reduced the risk of mortality by 33 percent.