Strelitz Diabetes Center opens satellite location in Suffolk

Story Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2015 10:23:00 EDT

The EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center has opened a new satellite location in Suffolk.

The new office, the Strelitz Diabetes Center of Western Tidewater, is located in the Medical Office Building at Sentara Obici Hospital, 2790 Godwin Blvd., Suite 320. Operating hours are Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The center cares for uninsured and insured patients, concentrating on the detection, prevention and management of diabetes and its most common complications: foot, eye and kidney diseases. Obici Healthcare Foundation provided grant support for the new location as a way to bring diabetes care to the people of Suffolk and surrounding communities. Free screenings are provided on a regular basis at the hospital and at other locations in the community. For a list of screening locations or a patient-care appointment, call 446.5908.

For more than 40 years, EVMS has been committed to partnering with patients and the community in the fight against diabetes by providing the most advanced, comprehensive care and cutting-edge research in the field. Twenty-five years ago, EVMS opened the Strelitz Diabetes Center on the EVMS campus in downtown Norfolk. Hampton Roads remains a hotbed for the disease that is now at epidemic proportions worldwide.

"We are grateful to Obici Healthcare Foundation for partnering with EVMS to serve the people of Western Tidewater," says Richard Homan, MD, President and Provost of EVMS and Dean of the School of Medicine. "Reducing the rate of diabetes in this community is of paramount importance to us."

“The Board of Directors of Obici Healthcare Foundation has focused on diabetes and its effects on the community for more than five years,” says Gina Pitrone, the Foundation's Executive Director.

"This opportunity to have the EVMS team in Suffolk," Ms. Pitrone says, "gives hope to the many people who have serious complications from this disease and don’t have the resources to understand or manage its effects. We feel so fortunate to have EVMS Medical Group diabetes experts to provide counseling and care to our diabetic and pre-diabetic community. We expect great relationships and outcomes to develop as a result of this new opportunity."

EVMS Medical Group physicians and providers will care for patients with diabetes mellitus or pre-diabetes and the associated debilitating complications. Services will include:

  • Coordination among specialty services: endocrine, nephrology, ophthalmology and podiatry
  • Diabetes/hypertension/renal disease screenings
  • Lifestyle intervention program

In addition to ongoing care and lifestyle education and coaching from certified diabetes educators, the new center will offer screenings for the regular evaluation of diabetes-related diseases.

An estimated 175,000 people in Hampton Roads live with diabetes. The western part of the region has some of the state’s highest incidents of the disease and leads Virginia in deaths related to diabetes.

“Of the 2,500 individuals EVMS has screened in Western Tidewater in the last few years, more than half have diabetes mellitus or pre-diabetes,” according to David Lieb, MD, Director of the new center and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at EVMS.

For more information about the center or to make an appointment, call 757.446.5908.

All News » |  <PreviousNext>