Wits Alumnus leads the fight to stop Diabetes
- Lisa Rautenbach
Diabetes is emerging as a global health concern and at the helm of this wave of increased attention is a proud Witsie.
Dr Desmond Schatz, a 1979 MBBCh graduate, is the President of the American Diabetes Association and leads the fight to Stop Diabetes?. As Professor and Associate Chairman of Pediatrics, Medical Director of the UF Diabetes Institute, and Associate Director of the Clinical Research Center, at the University of Florida, Gainesville, he has been involved in Type 1 diabetes research since the mid 80s and has published over 260 manuscripts, the majority related to the prediction, natural history, genetics, immunopathogenesis and prevention of the disease, as well as the management of children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes.
His presidential address to over 10,000 people in New Orleans in August 2017 speaks volumes to the fact that Wits graduates not only become global leaders in every field of endeavor but through their civic engagement work to make their communities better places.
You can listen to Dr Desmond Schatz impassioned address entitled “ Diabetes at 212 degrees: Confronting an invisible disease” here : http://webcasts.diabetes.org/html5Player/MDefault.aspx?webcastXmlInfo=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcasts.diabetes.org%2Fnetadmin%2FContent%2FADA2016%2Fsync%2FMSB-01%2F39780.xml&videoBaseUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fada-stream01%2FADA2016%2FMSB-01%2F