$2.1 million gift enhances OHSU center’s efforts to combat diabetes
An Oregon Health & Science University center dedicated to the treatment and prevention of diabetes has received a $2.1 million commitment to address America’s most prevalent chronic disease.
Portland area real estate developer and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer on June 4 made the commitment from the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation to OHSU’s Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center.
Schnitzer announced the gift during an event awarding the inaugural Jordan Schnitzer Endowed Chair in Diabetes to Rodica Busui, M.D., Ph.D., who was recruited last year to lead the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center.
Busui said the award will put in motion an ambitious plan to establish the center as a national leader in diabetes research, diabetes care and faculty excellence at OHSU and throughout the state.
“The center has a tradition of excellent patient care, and this award will enable us to develop and advance groundbreaking diabetes research to discover new therapies and technologies, to apply integration of the research into everyday practice, enabling personalized care, building community outreach programs for optimal care to rural and other underserved areas, and recruiting and training the next generation of diabetes investigators and clinicians, with the overarching mission and goal to improve the health and life of all people with diabetes throughout the state and nationwide,” she said.
Jordan Schnitzer’s late father, Harold Schnitzer, was a diabetes patient who advocated for better treatment and research for the disease.
The award comes on top of a recent $2.8 million grant from the Breakthrough T1D foundation to create a joint Center of Excellence at OHSU and the University of Michigan. That award is intended to reverse cardio-renal complications and accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into tangible therapies to improve the lives of people living with Type 1 diabetes.
Busui, past president for medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, said the prevalence of diabetes nationwide has grown in recent decades largely due to broad societal shifts toward more sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles.
Although preventing diabetes and its many consequences is a “complicated conversation,” Busui anticipates the OHSU center playing a leading role in implementing effective early diagnosis and personalized treatment at OHSU, and through collaboration with primary care and family medicine clinicians statewide.
Early diagnosis and effective treatment can prevent heart complications and heart failure, kidney disease, nerve damage and amputations, as well as the emotional burden of the disease, she said.
“Of course we want to prevent diabetes,” Busui said. “But it is just as important to take steps to prevent the development of more advanced complications for people who already have the condition, so they can live a normal life.”
Diabetes affects an estimated 41 million people in the U.S., or 12% of the population.
The new contribution from the Schnitzer family will also enhance the ability to recruit exceptional early-career clinician-scientists, grow educational initiatives, and enhance patient and community engagement. In 2007, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer donated $5.5 million to establish the first diabetes center of its kind in the region.