The gift will advance research on diabetes treatment, enhance patient care and education and further develop the assessment and counseling skills of new medical and health care professionals.
“I applaud Governor Anoatubby and the Chickasaw Nation for their leadership and engagement in the community, and I am grateful for their outstanding support of diabetes research and treatment,” Boren said, noting that when Harold Hamm Diabetes Center was created, the Chickasaw Nation was among the first to step forward to provide major gifts to support endowed positions at the Center.
“Diabetes is a devastating disease that has ended or shortened far too many lives,” said Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. “The Chickasaw Nation is proud to support Harold Hamm Diabetes Center as it leads the way in diabetes research and treatment for all Oklahomans.”
The majority of the gift will establish a Scholars Endowment to provide underlying salary support for new junior researchers and faculty, allowing Harold Hamm Diabetes Center to recruit highly skilled physician-scientists in areas of research that could lead to new treatments and ultimately a cure for diabetes. A portion of the gift will be used to renovate a space on the Center’s third floor in the Diabetes Life Clinic to construct a teaching and demonstration kitchen that will showcase and teach the many different sustainable ways to make healthy eating an everyday habit. In addition, the gift will enable the Center to work toward developing new alliances to install technology that can broadcast healthy living classes across the state, especially to rural and underserved communities.
The remainder of the gift will be used to renovate the OU College of Pharmacy Skills Development Practice Lab. Faculty and staff will utilize this space to develop advanced patient assessment and counseling skills to support the efforts of primary care physicians with medication management and patient counseling for Oklahomans with diabetes as well as other chronic problems, including hypertension, obesity, nicotine addiction, heart failure, asthma and other conditions requiring long-term medicine use.
