BOSTON, June 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- T1D Exchange, a patient-centered research organization dedicated to accelerating therapies and improving care for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), today announced that Endocrinologist Dara P. Schuster, MD, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. Schuster comes to T1D Exchange from Eli Lilly and Company, where she launched the company’s diabetes real-world evidence partnership development program. She has held several leadership roles with Lilly, most recently as Senior Medical Director of Diabetes Medical Affairs for the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Dr. Schuster replaces T1D Exchange co-founder Dana Ball, who announced in May his intention to resign as CEO. Ball will continue to serve T1D Exchange as a member of the Board.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Schuster has agreed to become our new CEO,” said Board Chair Keith Ryan, president of Geneous Biomedical Advisors. “She is a distinguished physician and researcher who has dedicated three decades of her career to advancing the care of people with type 1 diabetes.”
Prior to joining Lilly, Dr. Schuster was a practicing physician and Professor of Adult & Pediatric Endocrinology for The Ohio State University Health System. Named to America’s Top Pediatricians, America’s Best Doctors and Best Practices in Diabetes Management, Dr. Schuster held multiple clinical director roles at Ohio State while treating patients, teaching medical students, and advancing important diabetes research, including retrospective, real-world data analysis.
“I have dedicated my career as a physician and researcher to caring for patients with diabetes and advancing our understanding so as to improve their care and outcomes,” said Dr. Schuster. “I am excited by this opportunity to lead T1D Exchange and its groundbreaking efforts to generate and understand real-world data to accelerate new therapies.”
“As a leading funder of T1D Exchange, we look forward to seeing how Dr. Schuster’s critical leadership advances promising breakthroughs with the vision of reducing the burden of type 1 diabetes,” said David Panzirer, a trustee of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Dr. Schuster received her M.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics and a Fellowship in Adult and Pediatric Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospitals in Columbus. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Adult and Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism.
She has received awards for her diabetes research from multiple organizations including the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health. She has been published nearly 80 times in peer-reviewed journals.
“As I transition from the CEO chair to membership on the board, I am confident that T1D Exchange could be in no better hands than those of Dr. Schuster,” said outgoing CEO Dana Ball. “I look forward to supporting her during this transition, and to the exciting advances that will come with her at the helm.”
Dr. Schuster will be relocating from Indianapolis, where Eli Lilly and Company is headquartered, to the Boston area as soon as possible. She is expected to assume her new duties as CEO in early July.
About Type 1 Diabetes
Studies show that at least 1.25 million Americans are living with type 1 diabetes, including more than 200,000 young people under the age of 20. Alarmingly, there was a 21 percent increase in the prevalence of type one diabetes among young people from 2001-2009, with 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year. At the current rate, the number of people with type 1 diabetes is expected to grow to more than 5 million people in the U.S. by 2050.
About T1D Exchange
T1D Exchange is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to accelerating therapies and improving care for people affected by type 1 diabetes. T1D Exchange actively supports discovery and innovation—particularly at its earliest stages. Its flagship event, the Diabetes Innovation Challenge, identifies, nurtures and fast-tracks innovative scientific and clinical solutions for diabetes.
At the same time, the organization asserts that evidence gathered in the real-world can help bridge the gap between discovery in research settings and impact on people’s lives. T1D Exchange is creating tools, resources and programs to gather insights from people living with type 1 diabetes, as well as evidence from their real-world and clinical experiences. The goal is to link patient needs, data and insights to all stages of research and development, advancing new therapies and improving care for everyone affected by type 1 diabetes.
Contacts
For more information, please contact John Gillespie at (314) 708-9090 Jgillespie@T1DExchange.org or Rebecca Parkes, Chief Advancement Officer at (617) 892-6100 RParkes@T1DExchange.org.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/abc64559-0ae2-480e-b913-21ed1ede7ed6