The Cleveland Foundation Supports New UH Diabetes & Obesity Center

The Cleveland Foundation and UH have joined to stop the rising toll of diabetes on city residents. Through a $1,000,000 startup grant from the Cleveland Foundation, the newly established UH Diabetes & Obesity Center will bring enhanced local access to diabetes care, education, outreach and research.

Diabetes, the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, restricts quality of life for innumerable Clevelanders every year. Data from the Cleveland Department of Public Health show that in East Cleveland neighborhoods, Hough and Fairfax, diabetes mortality rates exceed the city’s by 30 percent. Nearly half of Cuyahoga County residents are affected. 13.3 percent have been diagnosed with diabetes and an estimated 33.6 of residents meet the criteria for prediabetes. The disease can mean severe health complications, from chronic pain and neuropathy to kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and amputation.

Confronting Diabetes, Together

With critical baseline support from the Cleveland Foundation, the UH Diabetes & Obesity Center in MidTown will help meet the need for diabetes care as part of a community-focused collective housed in the Cleveland Foundation's new MidTown Collaboration Center, situating it in an area with one of the highest diabetes burdens. Scheduled to open in January 2025, the center will immediately offer clinical care services to any adult with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, regardless of ability to pay. Patient education, community outreach, provider training, and diabetes research to begin in March 2025.

“There are times in medicine when you know history is being rewritten,” said Betül Hatipoğlu, MD, Mary Blossom Lee Chair in Adult Endocrinology and Medical Director of the UH Diabetes & Obesity Center. “We live in one of these challenging times, with diabetes affecting unexpected, unimaginable numbers of our community members. The Cleveland Foundation’s collaborative efforts in MidTown planted the much-needed seeds for us to succeed in this endeavor. We are proud to serve alongside the Cleveland Foundation for a brighter future and to become an exemplary model for the medical community. We couldn’t have dreamed this alone.”

The Cleveland Foundation’s space will accommodate a full roster of industry-leading organizations, such as Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Hyland Software, the Economic & Community Development Institute, Assembly for the Arts and others – creating more than 200 full-time jobs and meeting an array of local needs.

“The new University Hospitals Diabetes & Obesity Center will be an anchor in the MidTown Collaboration Center and in the Health Tech Corridor,” said Lillian Kuri, Cleveland Foundation President & CEO. “It is a bold investment in community health care that will be centered in and with the residents of the east side. With our philanthropic investment in UH, the Cleveland Foundation is proud to support this new transformative, groundbreaking model of community-engaged health care.”