WakeMed Pediatrician Mark Piehl Honored with Hands of Health Award
Raleigh, NC - WakeMed Health & Hospitals is pleased to announce Dr. Mark Piehl, WakeMed Faculty Physicians pediatrician, was honored yesterday morning with the John Rex Endowment Hands of Health Award. Dr. Piehl was selected by the Endowment to receive this award for his work in creating the Pediatric Diabetes and Energize! programs. The Endowment will contribute $10,000 to the charity of choice on the behalf of award recipients.
The Pediatric Diabetes Program was established in 2003 by a John Rex Endowment grant and focuses primarily on treating and educating children suffering from type 1 diabetes. Soon after this program was established, Dr. Piehl recognized the need to help curb the rising epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes among children and teens.
In response, Dr. Piehl and a multi-disciplinary team from WakeMed created Energize!. Energize! is a grant-funded program that provides nutrition education and physical activity to children who are at risk of developing diabetes due to being overweight, having elevated glucose and/or lipid levels, having a family history of diabetes or having other key risk factors.
The overall program goals are to improve the health and quality of life for children with diabetes and pre-diabetes, and to detect and treat children with pre-diabetes to prevent the otherwise inevitable progression to type 2 diabetes and its complications. At the end of the first year, over 1,400 children and teens have been referred to the program, several hundred children have been enrolled in the program and the outcomes are impressive. Children in the program lost weight, had desirable A1C levels, improved glucose and lipid levels, increased minutes of physical activity and made better food choices.
Because of the foresight, enthusiasm and passion Dr. Piehl has for treating type 1 diabetes and eliminating type 2 diabetes in children, children and families in Wake County have an invaluable resource in their daily battle against this disease. Dr. Piehl�s success in acquiring funding from the John Rex Endowment, The Duke Endowment and WakeMed has made it possible for hundreds of uninsured and underserved children and families to receive care at little or no cost.
Dr. Piehl earned an MPH and MD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and currently resides in Chapel Hill.
About the John Rex Endowment
The John Rex Endowment supports visible and measurable improvements in the health of Wake County children and youth by improving access to health services, by promoting healthy behaviors, and by providing opportunities for growth and development. Since 2001, the John Rex Endowment has funded 44 local grants, totaling over $14 million. The Endowment has been privileged to work with many exceptional individuals who have designed new approaches to address health issues. As a result, they decided to establish a tradition of recognizing the work of individuals each year with the Hands of Health Award. The John Rex Endowment Hands of Health Award was established to recognize individuals for their innovative contributions toward improving the health of local children. www.rexendowment.org
