13th CMRE International Symposium in Diabetes to Spotlight Obesity, AI and Newer Therapies

New Delhi: The 13th CMRE International Symposium in Diabetes 2026 is set to bring together national and international experts in diabetes, obesity and metabolic medicine for a one-day scientific programme on September 13, 2026, at Le Méridien, New Delhi. 

Organised by the Consortium for Medical Research & Education (CMRE), the symposium will provide a platform for clinicians and experts to discuss evolving evidence, newer therapeutic approaches and emerging technologies shaping contemporary diabetes and metabolic care. Medical Dialogues is the media partner for the event.

The organising committee for the symposium will be led by Dr Rajeev Chawla, Director, CMRE, a senior diabetologist, along with Prof Inass Shaltout, President, AASD; Prof Mohamed Hassanein, Chairman, DAR; and Dr Shalini Jaggi, Director, CMRE.

Speaking about the upcoming scientific meeting, Dr Rajeev Chawla said,

“Diabetes care is rapidly moving beyond a glucose-centric approach. Today, clinicians need to address obesity, cardiovascular and kidney risk, metabolic health, nutrition and emerging technologies as interconnected components of patient care. Through CMRE 2026, we aim to bring these evolving areas into focused scientific discussion and help translate newer evidence into practical, individualised patient care.”

Dr Shalini Jaggi, Co-Director, CMRE and Organising Secretary of the CMRE Conference, added,

“The scientific programme has been curated to address the challenges clinicians are encountering in day-to-day practice, while also bringing attention to newer areas such as obesity therapeutics, women’s metabolic health, digital medicine and personalised diabetes care. Our focus is to create a clinically relevant platform where experts can exchange perspectives, discuss emerging evidence and take back practical insights that can ultimately improve patient outcomes.”

The scientific programme will span multiple parallel sessions addressing some of the most relevant clinical questions in diabetes and metabolic  medicine.

Unravelling Diabesity will focus on the complex relationship between obesity and diabetes, including the clinical relevance of adipose tissue quality and quantity and the growing importance of muscle-centric approaches to metabolic management. The symposium will be chaired by Dr B. M. Makkar, Dr Vinod Kumar, Dr S. Sengupta and Dr Rajesh Marya.

This will be followed by the AACE-CMRE Joint Symposium on Obesity Therapeutics, which will explore precision obesity phenotyping for individualised therapeutic selection, adipose insulin resistance, the impact of weight loss, obesity remission as a therapeutic goal and strategies for protecting lean mass during significant weight reduction. The session will be chaired by Dr Anil Bhansali, Dr Banshi Saboo, Dr Shalini Jaggi and Prof Mohamed Hassanein.

The changing landscape of obesity pharmacotherapy will also come under discussion during the Battle of the Tides, featuring a debate on semaglutide versus tirzepatide and a panel discussion on the practical considerations surrounding obesity-management medications. The session will be chaired by Dr Harpreet Singh, Dr Manoj Chawla and Dr Rajesh Kesari.

In the diabetes therapeutics segment, Reimagining T2DM Therapeutics will examine the cardiorenal implications of modern combination therapies, phenotype-oriented treatment and whether early combination therapy could challenge the conventional sequential treatment-escalation approach. The symposium will be chaired by Dr Rajiv Gupta, Dr Atul Bhasin and Dr Rajiv Bansal.

The Hot Topics in Metabolic Medicine symposium will broaden the discussion to conditions closely linked with diabetes, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), sarcopenic obesity, childhood obesity and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic disease, with particular attention to the role of weight reduction in altering disease progression. The session will be chaired by Dr Rakesh Gupta, Dr Sanjeev Kapoor, Dr Ajay Gupta and Dr Shiv Sarin.

Maternal metabolic health will be addressed through the CMRE-DIPSI-FOGSI Symposium on Hyperglycemia in Pregnancy, covering evidence-based management of gestational diabetes mellitus, technology-enabled strategies for improving pregnancy outcomes, early intervention and prevention, and case-based GDM management. The symposium will be chaired by Dr Jyoti Sachdeva and Dr Neeru Malik.

Women-specific metabolic concerns will receive further attention during Through the Gender Lens, with discussions around women's metabolic health, menopause-associated metabolic risk and important considerations in managing women with type 2 diabetes. The session will be chaired by Dr Usha Sriram, Dr Pikee Saxena, Dr Madhuri Patel and Dr Meena Chhabra.

The Heart and Kidney Symposium will focus on the broader cardiovascular and renal burden associated with diabetes. Topics will include lipoprotein(a) and cardiovascular risk, aldosterone in persistently uncontrolled hypertension, the cardiorenal benefits of finerenone and the continuing significance of ASCVD among Indian patients with diabetes. The symposium will be chaired by Prof Vijay Trehan, Dr Prem Aggarwal, Dr Neelesh Kapoor and Dr Vijay Arora.

Emerging technology will form another major component of CMRE 2026 through the AI & Digital Metabolic Medicine Summit. Discussions will cover AI-augmented clinical decision-making in diabetes, digital biomarkers and continuous health monitoring, and the opportunities and risks associated with large language models in clinical practice. The summit will be chaired by Dr Kirti Soota, Dr Seema Shahi, Dr Alok Joshi and Dr Alok Modi.

Nutrition will also feature prominently through the IAPEN Nutrition Symposium, which will explore protein supplementation in diabetes and sarcopenia, meal timing and chrononutrition, and the role of personalised nutrition in diabetes management. The session will be chaired by Ms Anjalee Sharma, Dr Vijaya Lakshmi Nag and Dr Dhruvi Hasnani.

The Newer Innovations – Creating Solutions Beyond Scales session will look at developments in pharmacotherapy, including semaglutide in type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management and the advent of insulin icodec as an approach to reducing insulin treatment burden. The session will be chaired by Dr Vipul Gupta, Dr Hitesh Punyani, Prof Inass Shaltout and Dr Meena Chhabra.

Moving beyond conventional glucose control, Diabetes Beyond Hyperglycemia will explore circadian rhythmicity and metabolic health, dermatological manifestations of metabolic disease, inflammation as a therapeutic target and the evolving hierarchy of therapeutic options in type 2 diabetes. The symposium will be chaired by Dr Hitesh Saraogi, Dr Ajay Yadav, Dr Ravi Mohan and Dr Aastha Trehan.

The programme will additionally feature Innovations in Diabetes Management, with discussions around GLP-1 receptor agonist and basal insulin combination therapy, semaglutide, tirzepatide and lobeglitazone. The session will be chaired by Dr Naresh Chawla, Dr Amitabh Khanna and Dr Amarpreet Riar.

A separate session on First-Line Therapies in T2DM, With or Without Metformin will examine the contemporary positioning of GLP-1 receptor agonists, SGLT2 inhibitors and combination therapies. It will be chaired by Dr G. S. Kohli, Dr S. K. Bakshi and Dr Girish Khurana.

Alongside the symposia, CMRE 2026 will feature oral paper presentations showcasing emerging research in diabetes and metabolic medicine. The programme will also include the CMRE Lifetime Achievement Award Oration, CMRE Distinguished International Guest Oration and CMRE Gold Medal Oration, followed by the inauguration and concluding valedictory proceedings.

With discussions extending from obesity and precision therapeutics to cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health, women's health, nutrition and artificial intelligence, the 13th CMRE International Symposium in Diabetes 2026 will offer a broad scientific forum focused on the changing landscape of diabetes and metabolic care.