in Hampton Roads in Hampton Roads - Eastern Virginia Medical ...
in Hampton Roads in Hampton Roads - Eastern Virginia Medical ... in Hampton Roads in Hampton Roads - Eastern Virginia Medical ...
“ Those of us who are fortunate enoughto be over there [at the Strelitz DiabetesCenter] are very appreciative ofthe facility and the greatmedical care we getthrough the center.”Dan Welch28 years living with diabetesTraditional EKG reports don’t go deep enough,he shows, and could lead doctors to prescribe afamily of blood pressure medicines, for instance,that may cause sudden, unexplained heart failurein patients who may not even be aware that theyare diabetic.He tells the audience that other, equally availabledrugs would work without causing the potentiallyfatal response.It’s this kind of out-front research, applied todirect patient care, that sets the EVMS StrelitzDiabetes Center apart and has improved the livesof countless area diabetics.“They’ve been awfully good to me,” formerNorfolk State University President HarrisonWilson, PhD, says. “They keep me alive,literally.”Dr. Wilson left his post at NSU about a monthbefore meeting Dr. Vinik and becoming a centerpatient. “I really retired because I was feeling sobad,” he says. “I thought I was dying.”Dr. Wilson had been diagnosed as a diabeticseveral years earlier. He had managed hiscondition with insulin injections, but he didn’trealize his recent problems were related to thedisease.Dr. Vinik recognized the link and came up witha combination of medicines and diet changes thatgradually turned it around for Dr. Wilson.“I’m in shape now where I don’t have to takemedicine,” he says. The insulin injections have beenreplaced by a healthy diet combined with new sugarsubstitutes.“He really did a tremendous job on me,” Dr.Wilson says. “His methods and procedures makeall the difference in the world.”Helping Hampton RoadsIt’s an exciting time to be involved with theEVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center.The center, which opened in 1987 and is alreadya world leader in research and treatment of thedebilitating disease, has a new director, severalnew physicians and scientists and an increasingcommitment to diabetes research.“It’s one of the most important things we’re doingat the medical school,” says Gerald J. Pepe, PhD,dean and provost of EVMS. “We’re really ready tomove forward to make this even a better center thanit’s been.”22 Fall 2009 www.eVMS.EDUdiabetes research
“We have an edge,”he explains. “That’s whythe center is so important. All ofour physicians are backed up by starendocrinologists who can back up the entireoperation.”When Dr. Pepe became dean four years ago,a group of research advisors from outside theschool helped him pinpoint diabetes as a key areawhere the school had world-class expertise and thecommunity had significant needs. He established acenter dedicated to research involving diabetes andobesity. The needs are enormous and increasing aspeople become more sedentary.Every year, diabetes leads to 96,000 amputationsand kills 213,000 in the U.S., nearly six times thenumber who die annually from the seasonal flu.A chronic condition, diabetes occurs when thepancreas either can’t produce enough insulin orthe body doesn’t effectively use what it has. It isthe industrialized world’s leading cause of adultblindness and kidney failure. Every 10 seconds,someone dies from diabetes complications andtwo new patients are diagnosed, according to theInternational Diabetes Federation.In Hampton Roads, at least 130,000 peoplesuffer from the disease, and half don’t know it untilcomplications, such as nerve damage, have occurred.It’s unclear what triggers the bodies of Type 1diabetics to destroy their own insulin-producingcells, but obesity is linked to Type 2 diabetes. Type2 diabetes is striking people at such a young age thatit can no longer be referred to as adult-onset.“Now we’re looking at children, adolescents,who may be adult-onset diabetics,” Dean Pepe says.“Normally, we thought of adult onset at [age] 55.”To head the new emphasis, Dr. Pepe recruitedJerry L. Nadler, MD, who had run the Divisionof Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University ofVirginia.In his nine years there, Dr. Nadler helpedgarner U.S. News & World Report ranking for theU. Va. center. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital,in partnership with EVMS, recently made themagazine’s top 50 ranking.EVMS offers Dr. Nadler the opportunity to workon juvenile diabetes, with the adjacent Children’sHospital of The King’s Daughters, as well as tocollaborate with the Veterans AdministrationMedical Center in Hampton on diabetes in theelderly.LinkingDiabetesand other DiseasesDr. Nadler, who is also chairman of theinternal medicine department, is researching howsome genes may lead to the death of nervesand heart damage in diabetics.That could explain why diabetic patientsoften lose their ability to walk, tend to falland have intense pain. Another relatedcomplication is retinopathy, or nerve damageto eyes.“Some of the same gene family we believeis causing nerve disease might be causing eyedisease as well,” he says.Another focus of the center’s researchis heart disease. The Strelitz Center isplanning to establish a special clinic atSentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk to focuson heart disease prevention and improvedtreatments for diabetics.They have a higher risk of heart diseasebut are often unaware of their diabetes, Dr. Nadlerexplains, adding for many, “the first time they findout is when they have a heart attack.”EVMS researchers are investigating thelinks between diabetes and heart diseasein collaboration with the University ofVirginia and investigators in San Diegoas part of a grant funded by the NationalInstitutes of Health.Dr. Nadler’s personal interest is inunderstanding the link between the typeof obesity that leads to heart problemsand diabetes. He has a team lookinginto it that includes a scientist, SwarupChakrabarti, PhD and a post doctoralfellow, Banu Cole, MD.Diabetics are two to four times as likelyto die of a heart attack than the generalpopulation. Some component of that centralbody fat may be at fault, Dr. Nadler says.“What is learned in the labis translated into patientcare. The patient has theadvantage of research at areally early stage.”Etta Vinikhead of Strelitz Diabetes Center’sEducation DivisionRichard Dollar19 years living with diabetesTisha Jones29 years living with diabetesdiabetes researchwww.eVMS.EDU Fall 200923
- Page 7: Scientists awarded nearly half a mi
- Page 10 and 11: First-year medical students Rachel
- Page 12 and 13: Name change reflectsart therapist
- Page 14 and 15: Clinical TrialsGillian Durham first
- Page 16 and 17: But what exactly are clinical trial
- Page 18 and 19: e so generous that money alone beco
- Page 20 and 21: Turning theTide onDiabetes research
- Page 24 and 25: “ They’ve beenawfully goodto me
- Page 26 and 27: Since opening in 1987, the Strelitz
- Page 28: Claudia Keenan Hough,EVMS’ first
- Page 31 and 32: She rose to marketing director for
- Page 33 and 34: alumniDan Neumann, MD, Left,Class o
- Page 35 and 36: Graduate named toleadership post at
- Page 37 and 38: philanthropyCosmopolitan Internatio
- Page 39 and 40: Faculty and staffinvest in EVMScont
“ Those of us who are fortunate enoughto be over there [at the Strelitz DiabetesCenter] are very appreciative ofthe facility and the greatmedical care we getthrough the center.”Dan Welch28 years liv<strong>in</strong>g with diabetesTraditional EKG reports don’t go deep enough,he shows, and could lead doctors to prescribe afamily of blood pressure medic<strong>in</strong>es, for <strong>in</strong>stance,that may cause sudden, unexpla<strong>in</strong>ed heart failure<strong>in</strong> patients who may not even be aware that theyare diabetic.He tells the audience that other, equally availabledrugs would work without caus<strong>in</strong>g the potentiallyfatal response.It’s this k<strong>in</strong>d of out-front research, applied todirect patient care, that sets the EVMS StrelitzDiabetes Center apart and has improved the livesof countless area diabetics.“They’ve been awfully good to me,” formerNorfolk State University President HarrisonWilson, PhD, says. “They keep me alive,literally.”Dr. Wilson left his post at NSU about a monthbefore meet<strong>in</strong>g Dr. V<strong>in</strong>ik and becom<strong>in</strong>g a centerpatient. “I really retired because I was feel<strong>in</strong>g sobad,” he says. “I thought I was dy<strong>in</strong>g.”Dr. Wilson had been diagnosed as a diabeticseveral years earlier. He had managed hiscondition with <strong>in</strong>sul<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>jections, but he didn’trealize his recent problems were related to thedisease.Dr. V<strong>in</strong>ik recognized the l<strong>in</strong>k and came up witha comb<strong>in</strong>ation of medic<strong>in</strong>es and diet changes thatgradually turned it around for Dr. Wilson.“I’m <strong>in</strong> shape now where I don’t have to takemedic<strong>in</strong>e,” he says. The <strong>in</strong>sul<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>jections have beenreplaced by a healthy diet comb<strong>in</strong>ed with new sugarsubstitutes.“He really did a tremendous job on me,” Dr.Wilson says. “His methods and procedures makeall the difference <strong>in</strong> the world.”Help<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Hampton</strong> <strong>Roads</strong>It’s an excit<strong>in</strong>g time to be <strong>in</strong>volved with theEVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center.The center, which opened <strong>in</strong> 1987 and is alreadya world leader <strong>in</strong> research and treatment of thedebilitat<strong>in</strong>g disease, has a new director, severalnew physicians and scientists and an <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gcommitment to diabetes research.“It’s one of the most important th<strong>in</strong>gs we’re do<strong>in</strong>gat the medical school,” says Gerald J. Pepe, PhD,dean and provost of EVMS. “We’re really ready tomove forward to make this even a better center thanit’s been.”22 Fall 2009 www.eVMS.EDUdiabetes research
Change language