ENID — Diabetes often has been called the silent killer. It has no outright symptoms, other than indications of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It can be a slowly creeping disease, taking years to wreak its disastrous consequences.

Yet, this silent killer is working in the bodies of nearly a third of Oklahoma residents. About 39 percent of the population of Oklahoma has pre-diabetes or diabetes, physicians say. Those kinds of staggering statistics are why faculty and staff members of Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center in Oklahoma City are building what they believe will be a nationally known, comprehensive diabetes research and treatment center.

Enid oilman Harold Hamm knows first-hand about diabetes. He was diagnosed with the disease about 10 years ago. As a result of that diagnosis, Hamm found there were few comprehensive resources to help him manage his diabetes.

“There is not an M.D. Anderson of diabetes,” Hamm said. “The more research I did, the more I found (diabetes) was kind of an unpopular disease because not a lot of physicians follow it. There are not many procedures done with diabetes.”

As Hamm began to think about his own options, he said he realized with diabetes being so widespread and affecting nearly every family, he started to develop a vision about providing comprehensive research and treatment specifically for diabetes.

Three years ago, with a substantial monetary donation by Hamm, help from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences faculty and staff and the mandate of OU President David Boren, Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center was established with a four-tiered mission — research, education, prevention and clinical services focused on the disease of diabetes.



Oklahoma is severely affected because of lifestyle issues



The faculty and staff at Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center are serious about their jobs because they know Oklahoma is disproportionately affected by diabetes.

Dr. Timothy Lyons and Dr. Kenneth Copeland share duties as directors of the diabetes center — Lyons specializing on the adult side of the disease and Copeland specializing on the pediatrics side.

Dr. Lyons is chief of adult diabetes research. Originally from Ireland, he came to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2002 in order to develop a diabetes research program.

“My goals in coming here were to pursue diabetes research, and the other is that I perceived there was a great need in Oklahoma for a diabetes center,” Dr. Lyons said. “The university needed to be taking a leadership role in addressing the epidemic of diabetes.”

Unfortunately, the United States has been leading that epidemic. Oklahoma is severely affected because of lifestyle issues, but also our state has vulnerable communities, Dr. Lyons said.

American Indians, blacks and Hispanics make up a disproportionately large population of sufferers from pre-diabetes and diabetes, Dr. Lyons said.

The adult side of the program offers outreach throughout the state, partnering with communities and other agencies both inside and outside the University of Oklahoma. Enid will host such an outreach event on March 27.

Dr. Lyons explained the center as it is being developed does research, provides education re-garding prevention and management of diabetes and also acts as a bully pulpit on behalf of diabetes patents.

Already the center has done a lot of collaborative research and has benefited from several research grants.

“Most of our growth has been driven by diabetes research,” Dr. Lyons said. “We have nearly $40 million in grants and $18 million in grants for children coming from the National Institutes of Health.”

Those grants are important because they are the “gold standard” of research funding, Dr. Lyons explained.

With this research, the center also provides a significant amount of clinical programs.

“Diabetes is not just one disease,” Dr. Lyons said. “It consists of a lot of things. Type 1 diabetes is auto- immune destruction of cells in the pancreas. The final common pathway is destruction of cells in the pancreas that makes insulin.”

On the other hand, Type 2 diabetes is the result of a multitude of intra-cellular processes, he explained. There are many underlying causes, primarily lifestyle issues, such as unhealthy nutrition and poor weight management. That’s were the bully pulpit and education offerings of the center come into play in trying to help prevent the disease or, at least, intervene early in adulthood.

“We advocate for better care, for better access for minorities, for policies to prevent diabetes in the future,” he said.

Dr. Copeland is director over the pediatric part of the center, which is a brand new addition to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The new pediatric wing was just completed in the fall and conducts research in children’s diabetes, particularly in Type 2 diabetes.

A major concern is the treatment for pregnant wo-men, and the threat of diabetes during pregnancy.

“What we know more than anything else is that the factors that predispose a child to diabetes and obesity are occurring at a very, very young age,” Dr. Copeland said, “not only in early childhood, but many factors are being set up while the child is in the womb.”

“Type 2 diabetes is occurring at an early age,” Dr. Copeland said, “On this floor, we also conduct our diabetes and endocrine research.”

Dr. Copeland has been with OU for more than 10 years. Prior to that he was director of a diabetes program in Houston.

A lot of Dr. Copeland’s work has been exploring the early childhood risk factors and how one might modify them to reduce risk later in life.

“We found out that you don’t get diabetes when you’re 60 and get fat,” he said. “You’re being set up by perhaps a mother with diabetes or by gaining too much weight early in childhood.”

 He also works extensively with minority populations, and conducts a telemedicine session every week through a clinic in Talihina. Through this telemedicine session, Dr. Copeland can see 12 to 20 patients and work with them on dosage issues or consult with the patients on any issues they are having. He has a nurse on the clinical end he communicates with through a televised exam as he works with the patients.

“We take care of about 650 children with diabetes and about 3,000 children with other problems, like growth and thyroid issues,” Copeland said.

Hamm, OU get together on the vision



University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center had a pretty good start on becoming a leader in the research and treatment of diabetes early in the decade. Dr. Lyons and Dr. Copeland already were on board with their programs.

However, what was lacking was a kind of synergy and focus about where this research and program could lead. Also, what was needed was more financial capital.

The timing was just right when Harold and Sue Ann Hamm began developing their vision about where diabetes research and treatment need to go from a patient’s standpoint.  That’s when Hamm made contact with OU President David Boren about three years ago.

“I decided to see if we couldn’t team up with somebody with the same mindset and vision,” Hamm said. “Basically, David Boren had a center vision and OU had the makings of that in progress. We shared our ideas and that day decided we would team up.”

In March 2007, the naming gift for the center was received from the Hamms, who donated $7 million. The state Legislature provided $10.5 million for capital development in July 2006. 

More than $3 million of the Hamm Foundation’s investment goes toward three endowed chairs — adult diabetes, clinical diabetes re-search and adult diabetes clinical care or research.  Children’s Medical Research Institute  identified diabetes as one of its highest priorities, and  donated $15 million to the cause. 

Also since 2005, generous support has been provided by the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee Nations of Oklahoma, Hille Foundation of Tulsa, Mr. Henry Zarrow of Tulsa, Anne and Henry Zarrow Founda-tion of Tulsa, Mr. Jack Cooper of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and OU College of Continuing Education. Several smal-ler donations also are coming in at a regular pace.

“We’ve gotten good partners,” Sue Ann Hamm said. “By Harold stepping up, other people have stepped up and become partners.”

One of the first things accomplished was purchasing a building for Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center. The building, located at 1000 N. Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City, originally was Presbyterian Health Foundation.

Martha Ogilvie, administrative director of the diabetes center, said the building houses the adult endocrinology clinic, administrative and education offices and clinical trials.

“We see roughly 600 visits a month,” she said. “We have about nine active clinical research trials going, some of which are drug trials.”

The center also offers education classes, and each patient is asked to attend four education sessions a year to help with their ongoing lifestyle.

The building also has other tenants, including Dean Mc-Gee Eye Institute and the University of Oklahoma Health Center University Health Club. Both programs work closely with the diabetes center, Ogilvie said.

“There is a wonderful kind of synergy,” she said. “We have the gym where we can work with patients as well, and four floors of medical office space.”

The brand new Depart-ment of Pediatrics Section of Diabetes and Endocrinology is located just down the street in Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center, located within the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center complex. The department is composed of 14 sections and 109 faculty members, seeking excellence in individual and shared goals.

The faculty and staff just recently moved into the new facility, which comprises the entire fourth floor.

“The new building has given us so much technology,” said Shella Southern, outpatient manager of the clinic.

Some of that new technology includes computers doctors and nurses can access in each treatment room that will “follow” the patient through their process.

When a patient or nurse walks out from one exam area and goes to another treatment room, he or she immediately can log onto the computer and get patient information.

David Fields, an Enid native and an assistant professor in the Pediatric Metabolic Research Program, also works with the pediatric program, particularly in research involving body composition, fetal origins of disease and ethnic differences in body composition and insulin sensitivity.

Some of the new technology he gets to work with includes different kinds of “pods” that help measure body fat in newborns through adults.

The Pea Pod technology allows an infant to be placed in the pod for the measurements to take place. These devices cost about $125,000 each, and there are only 49 of them in the world, Fields said.

Fields explained the technology helps physicians better understand the link between obese mothers and risk factors for diabetes in their newborns.

“We have 400 babies we’re treating,” Fields said.

While the Pea Pods can measure newborns and in-fants, the center also has Bod Pods for adults and Todd Pods for toddlers.

“We’re the only site in the world for the Todd Pod,” Fields said.

The rest of the fourth floor of the pediatric center includes exam rooms, treatment rooms and education centers. The floor is large and has room to grow into as the center grows its missions.

Oklahoma City isn’t the only location for the work of the diabetes center. There also is a Tulsa branch of Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center that treats pediatric Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Newly diagnosed patients experience comprehensive training on what diabetes is and how to manage the disease. The Tulsa center provides classes and training in diabetes management, insulin pump therapy, weight loss counseling and sick-day management.

“We look back at this point, it was three years ago when we did the unveiling of the center,” Hamm said. “We’ve come an awfully long way. We have a lot still to do, and we’re still doing some very exciting things with this center.”

Helping to create anationally known center



Dr. Lyons is emphatic about the university’s commitment to being a leader in researching and treating the diabetes epidemic. With  de-velopments of the last three to four years and funding from the Hamms and other private sources, the physicians and staff believe they are building a complete program.

“Getting the diabetes epidemic under control has to become a priority,” Dr. Lyons said.

“We think this is a very important goal for the state of Oklahoma in terms of the economy, in terms of people’s health and longevity,” he said.

Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center is on its way to becoming a leader in the field of diabetes, and this has the opportunity to bring more “intellectual capital” to Oklahoma, Dr. Lyons said.

“This is good for the state’s economy,” he said. “These are relatively high-paying jobs that bring intellectual capital to the state, which is critical for our future competitiveness in the world.”

The faculty and staff have expressed appreciation for the commitment of the Hamms, and they know it will take a lot of ongoing support and education to help combat diabetes.

“The diabetes center has to have that community support because of the structure of health care,” Dr. Lyons said. “Many of our patients are disadvantaged. We have to work as hard as we can to bring in research dollars, and we need buy-in from the whole community so we can achieve these important goals.”

As for Hamm, he sees his vision coming to fruition and is excited about the potential collaborations to come.

“I talk about the collaborative effort that’s possible here,” Hamm said. “You can do a lot of things with diabetes. You can work on all the symptoms. We’ve done very good work.

“The primary thrust of this center is the research done here,” Hamm said. “It’s for a cure — I think we can find that in my lifetime.”