An historical look at diabetes at the University of Michigan

1916-1918

•  Dr. Nellis Barnes Foster, who established himself as one of the leading diabetologists in the U.S. in the early 1900s, serves as head of the U-M Department of Internal Medicine; His specialty was diabetes mellitus and, in 1915, he wrote a textbook on the subject called Diabetes Mellitus Designed for the Use of Practitioners of Medicine .

•  Foster nominates and recruits Dr. Louis Harry (L.H.) Newburgh from Massachusetts General Hospital to join the U-M faculty and take charge of the metabolic ward.

1918

•  Newburgh serves as acting head Internal Medicine and chairman of the committee to find Foster's successor; As a Professor of Clinical Investigation in Internal Medicine, Newburgh focused mainly on nutrition and metabolism with specific reference to obesity, diabetes mellitus, nephritis and body water and electrolytes.

1918-1922

•  Newburgh and Dr. Phil Marsh treat 190 diabetic patients with the Newburgh-Marsh High Fat Diet. (Newburgh thought that Dr. Frederick Allen's Starvation Diet improved the treatment of diabetic patients, but failed to provide adequate caloric intake. After determining that increasing carbohydrate intake wouldn't work because it would result in an increase in glycosuria, or the amount of sugar in the urine, and that increasing protein intake wouldn't work because about half of it is converted to glucose, he decided to increase his patients' caloric intake by increasing the fat in their diets.)

1930s

•  Jerome Conn, M.D., an expert on adrenal hormones, succeeds his mentor Newburgh as the head of Michigan 's Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism

1955

•  The Michigan Diabetes Children's Association opens Camp Midicha for children and teens with diabetes. Today, Camp Midicha is an American Diabetes Association resident camp located on the YMCA Camp Copneconic property in Fenton , MI . The MDCA no longer exists.

1958-1976

•  Ann Arbor Diabetic Association members diligently raise money to support diabetes research at the U-M and the Joslin Clinic in Boston ; U-M Drs. Stefan Fajans and George Lowrey serve as members and medical advisors; The Association eventually becomes a chartered ADA group.

Dr. Stefan S. Fajans

1960s

•  Dr. Stefan S. Fajans of the U-M Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism leads a team of scientists that demonstrates the involvement of amino acids in insulin release.

1970

•  Linda Kay Tanner Strodtman becomes one of the first three Clinical Nurse Specialists at University Hospital ; Strodtman specialized in diabetes and eventually went on to be a key player in establishing the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center , specifically the Diabetes Center Unit; She was also extremely active in defining the general role of the CNS.

1976

•  U-M faculty members, led by Fajans, form a policy committee to look at establishing a diabetes center at Michigan . The committee begins developing plans for what will become the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center .

•  The National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases (NIAMDD) announces its diabetes research and training centers program and issues grant application guidelines; The U-M submits a grant proposal identifying 100 researchers throughout the institution who are doing work that "held interest" for diabetes.

1977

•  The U-M is awarded a five-year $4.3 million grant to create the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center; Michigan is one of the first five institutions to receive such funding.

About the early days of the MDRTC: The fundamental concept behind the creation of this center was being able to conduct research and bring the knowledge gained from it directly to patients. The center was erected as more than a building - it was meant to be an organization composed of a network of "core facilities" whose joint function was to foster interdisciplinary effort in diabetes research and training. The activities of the MDRTC initially were organized into three categories: research programs; training and demonstration programs (the Diabetes Care Unit); and continuing education programs. The three main research foci in the late 1970 were basic cell regulation, natural history and genetics of diabetes, and management and treatment of diabetes.

The inaugural members of the MDRTC Executive Committee included: Dr. Stefan S. Fajans, Director; Dr. John C. Floyd, Jr., Associate Director and Coordinator of Model Demonstration Unit; Dr. Roland "Red" Hiss, Coordinator of Continuing Education and Outreach Corps; Dr. Sumer Pek, Coordinator of Research Programs; Dr. Wayne K. Davis, Director of Educational Development and Evaluation Corps; Marilyn "Mickey" Cohn, Administrative Manager; Linda Kay Tanner Strodtman, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Model Demonstration Unit; Dr. George Bacon, head of Endocrinology and Metabolism, U-M Dept. of Pediatrics; Dr. Hansen ; Dr. William E. Lands; and Mr. Howard Salmon.

1978

•  Fajans receives the Banting Memorial Award from the American Diabetes Association and publicly presents evidence for the heterogeneity of diabetes.

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