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when standards are set and excellence is achieved in academic medicine.
Stopping the Diabetes Tide
Diabetes is a growing epidemic. Affecting 18 million people in the United States — a number projected to grow to more than 30 million by 2012 — the disease causes up $142 billion a year in health-care costs. The outlook is particularly dire for children, whose record obesity rates have led to an upswing in Type 2 diabetes,
once considered an adults-only problem. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that if obesity
rates grow as projected, a third of American children born in 2003 will go on to develop diabetes.
The University of Florida is on the front lines of the fight to stop the disease’s upward spiral. Dr. Desmond Schatz — who has overseen pioneering studies in early detection, prevention and treatment of diabetes — is medical director of UF’s Diabetes Center.
“We’re at the forefront of the action,” he says, citing the widespread recognition of UF’s accomplishments in the field of diabetes research from organizations such as The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association. “We’ve contributed a lot to the understanding of the mechanisms leading to diabetes and the genetics of the disease, as well as prevention and treatment.”
It’s not easy for the kids with diabetes, who often go through their daily lives feeling different, set apart by their disease. Not at Florida Diabetes Camp, however, where they’re just like everyone else.
Dr. Janet Silverstein, chief of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, has volunteered at the camps since 1979, first as a camp physician, and then as the Gainesville-based organization’s medical director in 1989. Each summer, Silverstein packs up and heads to Camp Winona, near DeLeon Springs, Fla., where campers gather.
“Camp for me,” she says, “is the most rewarding thing I do.”
UF campus researchers continue to take the fight against diabetes to the next level. In fact, within 15 years, UF’s doctors and researchers could close in on biological markers to track the disease’s progression. Schaltz hopes to include more researchers, health-care professionals and patients in UF’s efforts, and he’s optimistic that new treatment and prevention strategies — including gene and stem-cell therapy — will help turn the tide.
