Scott & White Healthcare and Texas A&M HSC College of Medicine recruit internationally-renowned diabetes researcher

TEMPLE, TX - Scott & White Healthcare and the Texas A&M Health Science Center (HSC) College of Medicine welcome internationally-recognized diabetes researcher Vivian Andrew Fonseca, M.D., F.R.C.P., chief, division of endocrinology and metabolism at Scott & White and professor of internal medicine at the HSC-College of Medicine. Dr. Fonseca sees patients at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple at 1605 South 31st Street, but he and his team will also open a Diabetes Institute in Round Rock on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus on Dec. 10, 2009. This clinic expects to start seeing patients in January 2010.

Dr. Fonseca and his research colleagues will focus on the development of new treatments for diabetes, including collaboration with the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Scott & White to investigate stem cell treatments. He joins Scott & White from Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans, where he served as medical director of its diabetes education program. Dr. Fonseca was also a staff physician at the Medical Center of Louisiana and the New Orleans Veterans Affairs Hospital high-risk diabetes clinic.

"Scott & White is both honored and delighted to welcome Dr. Fonseca to the institution," said Alfred Knight, M.D., president and CEO of Scott & White. “Combining translational research with clinical care puts scientists and doctors at the bedside, offering efficient and effective treatments."

Vasudevan A. Raghavan, M.D., M.B.B.S., endocrinologist at Scott & White and assistant professor of internal medicine at the HSC-College of Medicine, who joined the organization in August 2009, is a member of the team working with Dr. Fonseca. Dr. Raghavan will soon start an innovative obesity program. And, Cyrus DeSouza, M.D., will join the group in a few months to head its fellowship program. In addition, a basic scientist is expected to join the team in January 2010.

“We’re thrilled to have Dr. Fonseca join the faculty,” said Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., M.P.H., dean of the HSC-College of Medicine. “The College of Medicine and Scott & White are extremely fortunate to have recruited Dr. Fonseca, who brings an outstanding team of investigators conducting world-class research involving diabetes.”

Dr. Fonseca received his medical degree from Bombay University, an M.B.B.S. from the Armed Forces Medical College in Poona, India, and his M.R.C.P. from the Royal College of Physicians in London. Dr. Fonseca has been a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Tulane since 1996. He is also a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Fonseca is leading several clinical research trials, including diabetic retinopathy progression in subjects with type 2 diabetes treated with insulin, inhaled insulin compared to subcutaneous human insulin therapy, multivitamins and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the effects of local clonidine application on painful diabetic neuropathy.

Dr. Fonseca is actively involved on an international level regarding diabetes research, recently returning from a conference in Vienna. He is also vice president-elect of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and will soon represent the ADA in India at a "Best of ADA" program in November. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the Endocrine Society, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, International Diabetes Federation and American College of Physicians, among several others.

For more information on Dr. Fonseca, please visit the following link or call 254-215-0300:
http://www.sw.org/web/patientsAndVisitors/templatedata/hr/staff/data/phy_def/phy_fonseca_v

About Diabetes (http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/diabetes/)
Diabetes is a condition in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. While an estimated 17.9 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 5.7 million people (or nearly one quarter) are unaware that they have the disease. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes. Of these, over 90 percent have type 2 or adult-onset diabetes, a disorder whose risk has been shown to decrease drastically with weight loss and even modest physical activity. According to the Texas Diabetes Council, an estimated 1.8 million people aged 18 years and older in Texas have been diagnosed with diabetes. Another estimated 460,040 people aged 18 years and older in Texas are believed to have undiagnosed diabetes. Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in Texas in 2002 through 2005.

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