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USF President Envisions Campus Diabetes Hospital

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By ADAM EMERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 11, 2008

With one of the world's most notable diabetes researchers on her faculty, University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft said Wednesday that she is preparing to raise money to build a USF diabetes hospital.

Over the past decade, pediatrics professor Jeffrey Krischer has brought USF $398 million in research funding to study the cause and find the cure of Type 1 diabetes. During her annual fall address, Genshaft said she wants Tampa area families suffering from the disease to receive treatment from the most talented doctors studying it.

A hospital, however, is only an idea now, said Stephen Klasko, USF's vice president of health sciences. The university hasn't planned for one yet, but Klasko has repeatedly sought to build a campus hospital and now is weighing how to leverage that goal with Krischer's talents.

In July, Krischer won a $128 million National Institutes of Health grant to investigate new therapies that may arrest the progression of Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes. That came about a year after he received a $169 million federal grant to study what triggers the disease.
Krischer could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but Klasko said there are only about four diabetes hospitals in the country.

"In order for us to be a great medical school, we need a hospital that looks like Moffitt on our campus," said Klasko, referring to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at USF, which works with the university but is not a part of it.

Getting any hospital, however, has not been easy for USF. Klasko lobbied lawmakers last spring to approve a plan that would allow USF to bypass the state agency that determines the need for a new hospital. But the Florida Hospital Association fought back, and legislators shelved the proposal.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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