This study will evaluate the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of the PDS in patients with DME when treated every 24 weeks compared with intravitreal ranibizumab 0.5 mg every 4 weeks.

The purpose of this formative research is to explore and understand patient-, provider-, and systems-level characteristics that affect the sustainability and success of remote patient monitoring technology applied to diabetes chronic care. This will be completed through evaluation and analysis of the Technology Assisted Case Management in Low Income Adults with Type 2 Diabetes (TACM-2) implementation program. TACM-2 utilizes remote patient monitoring (RPM) of diabetes and hypertension to augment regular clinical care, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes particularly for low-income patients regardless of geographic location.

This exploratory study's broad goal is to characterize key barriers and facilitators to RPM use over time through a mixed methods design. We will utilize data gathered as part of an ongoing quality improvement program, TACM-2, to provide quantitative data on RPM uptake and effectiveness. We will also obtain qualitative and quantitative data from participating patients and healthcare teams. Our objectives are to assess:
1) patient-level variables that are associated with sustained device use and clinical outcomes over time,
2) patterns of device uptake and data transmission across South Carolina as markers of scalability and sustainability, and
3) patient-, clinic- and system-level barriers and facilitators of RPM implementation.

Kidney donation from a living donor provides the kidney recipient with the best chance of a longterm survival of the transplanted kidney. White End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients are 4 times more likely to recieve a living donor kidney than are African American (AA) ESRD patients. There are many reasons for this disparity in obtaining the benefits of living donation for AAs, including lack of knowledge regarding the living donation process. This study will provide a web-based educational intervention to overcome this knowledge deficiency with the hope that there will be an increase in patient interest in living donation which will result in more living donation kidney transplant inquiries by patients' family or friends.

The goal of this study is to determine the safety and efficacy of fresh metabolically active allogeneic umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) for the treatment of new-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) and to understand the mechanisms of protection. If proven effective, such a strategy can be used as a therapeutic option for T1D patients and potentially other autoimmune disorders.

People with diabetes develop irreversible eye, kidney, and nerve damage that is difficult to treat. Recent studies show that fenofibrate, a safe drug that has been used to lower cholesterol in the past, is effective in eye and kidney disease in patients with diabetes; but it is unclear how the drug actually works. We will do a ‘proteomic' analysis, a technology that measures hundreds of proteins in the blood, in 40 patients with diabetes before and after they take fenofibrate for six weeks. This work will help us understand how exactly the drug works, so that better treatment and preventive methods can be developed for the complications of diabetes.

Many youth and young adults (YYAs) with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), particularly those of minority race/ethnicity, do not achieve optimal glycemic control and household food insecurity (HFI) may be a key barrier. HFI is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods. The SEARCH Food Security (SFS) cohort study is designed as an ancillary study to the ongoing NIH/NIDDK-funded SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth 4 Cohort study. The aims of the SFS study are to (1) Initiate a food insecurity cohort study of 1,187 YYAs aged 15-35 years (53% minority) with T1D and T2D by adding two data collection time points to the ongoing SEARCH 4 study in three of the five SEARCH sites, including South Carolina, Colorado and Washington; (2) Evaluate how HFI influences changes in glycemic control in YYAs with T1D and T2D; (3) Identify the pathways through which food insecurity may act; and (4) Evaluate the influence of HFI on changes in health care utilization and medical and non-medical health care costs in YYAs with T1D and T2D.

Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common liver disease, and involves fat deposition in the liver. The fat in the liver can lead to inflammation, scarring, end stage liver disease and potential liver cancer. Some patients with fat in their liver do not see these changes, and our current understanding of why some people are not affected while others see progression of their disease is poor. We are currently in process of initiating studies to learn more about fatty liver disease, and having a database of patients at the VA medical center who are willing to participate in these studies and future studies would help both the patients learn about the new and upcoming therapies, and help the clinical investigators to quickly screen their patients and invite them to participate in their studies.

Lipoproteins are particles in the blood which transport not only cholesterol and fats but also other lipids like sphingolipids. The purpose of this study is to investigate a type of sphingolipid, called deoxysphingolipid, in patients with diabetes who have nerve pain or neuropathy. These lipids can play a role in the development of diabetes complications, like neuropathy. We will investigate the role of this sphingolipid in the VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoprotein), LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) and HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) in the development of nephropathy in diabetes. We will recruit patients with type 2 diabetes with or without neuropathy. Patients who volunteer for the study will be asked to donate a single blood sample to be used for isolation of lipoproteins. The sphingolipid composition of each lipoprotein class will be determined and the effect of the lipoproteins on the metabolism of cells in culture also determined.

HIV testing is often shunned in community settings due to the stigma of HIV-centric services. Our recent pilot study strongly suggest that integration of a package of screening that include HIV, diabetes, and hypertension hold promise of substantially increasing the uptake of HIV testing while simultaneously providing direly needed community screening for non-communicable disease (NCDs) like diabetes and hypertension, which themselves are at epidemic levels in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study will examine whether integrating HIV screening with NCD screening will improve uptake of HIV testing and whether integrating HIV and NCD care will improve retention.

The TRANSFORM network is focused on improving child health outcomes in SC through research on conditions of highest priority for future generations. These include conditions like asthma, autism, diabetes, obesity and early childhood outcomes. To accelerate research study recruitment activities for future projects that TRANSFORM sites may participate in, the TRANSFORM network sites will create a research recruitment registry of families interested in volunteering for research. Participants will enter their own as well as their child(ren)'s information into the electronic registry which can be used to identify people to contact for future studies.