Barbara Davis Center
for Childhood Diabetes celebrates 100,000th patient visit
The Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at the University of Colorado Denver completed the 100,000th patient visit
March 10. The center, which opened in 1980, provides clinical services for
children, adolescents and young adults with Type 1 diabetes. Additionally,
the center supports substantial clinical and basic science research programs
to prevent and ultimately cure this chronic life-threatening disease.
The clinical team at the Barbara Davis Center provides care to more than 5,000
registered patients, including 3,400 children seen by the pediatric clinic,
making it one of the largest diabetes centers in the world. More than 20 percent
of the patients come from outside Colorado, mostly the Rocky Mountain region,
but some travel from areas as remote as South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, Israel,
Jordan, China, England and Chile.
The center provides comprehensive clinical care delivered by a team of 14
doctors, 11 diabetes nurse educators, four dieticians and two social workers,
with an on-site eye clinic.
BDC leads the nation in childhood diabetes research, translating the newest
discoveries into routine practice.
Only one-in-four of newly diagnosed children with diabetes in Colorado are
hospitalized, while nearly all children in other areas of the United States
spend a few days in the hospital after diagnosis. About a quarter of the center’s
patients have little or no health insurance.
Over the past 25 years, the unique clinical program of the BDC has been possible
through the generosity of many supporters of the Children’s Diabetes
Foundation. In May, the Center will move to its new state-of-the-art facility
at the University of Colorado Denver’s
Fitzsimons campus in Aurora. For more information, visit www.BarbaraDavisCenter.org.
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