For the record
I was glad to see the article on the University of Oklahoma's diabetes programs, ''Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center searches for cure'' [Vol. 27, Iss. 37]. The problem of diabetes is definitely extremely serious.
I would like to offer some clarification and elaboration to the content of the article. I am the director of the only American Indian dedicated diabetes research center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and able to comment accurately on the topic. The name of this program is the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center, in the College of Public Health.
My center was reported as the second grant under the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center. This is wrong. My center is funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and has no funding connection to the Hamm privately donated money at all. The Hamm Center includes American Indian people along with all other minorities, whereas the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center is exclusively dedicated to American Indian people. The Hamm Center is an excellent operation, but not the same as the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center and is not administratively connected to it.
Moreover, the activities of the AIDPC are much broader than indicated in the article, emphasize prevention and public health, and puts into effect a preference for American Indian staffing of the center. All of these facts make the AIDPC a unique contribution to American Indian health. There are Indian researchers working for Indian people in Indian country to end diabetes.
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- J. Neil Henderson, Ph.D.
Director, American Indian Diabetes Prevention CenterUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Oklahoma City
