{"id":252,"date":"2014-09-05T19:44:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp-dev.its.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltmedicine\/?p=252"},"modified":"2021-08-11T19:41:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:41:45","slug":"alumni-profile-oscar-crofford-m-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/alumni-profile-oscar-crofford-m-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni profile: Oscar Crofford, M.D."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oscar<\/a>
Oscar Crofford, M.D. Photo by Dean Dixon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Distinguished Career<\/h3>\n

Oscar Crofford, M.D., is the recipient of the 2014 VUSM Distinguished Alumnus Award, and will be recognized during Reunion Weekend in October. Among his many achievements, Crofford led a landmark study called the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) that established the value of rigorous blood glucose control and revolutionized the treatment of the disease.<\/p>\n

Crofford\u2019s \u201cimpact at Vanderbilt is difficult to overstate,\u201d said Alvin Powers, M.D., current director of the Diabetes Research and Training Centers (DRTC) and Vanderbilt Diabetes Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the chair on the (national) commission in the 1970s that led to the creation of the NIH-supported network of diabetes centers. \u201cThat commission also laid the foundation for the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, which changed the way physicians take care of diabetes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, in 1930, Crofford attended Vanderbilt in an accelerated program and earned both his bachelor\u2019s and medical degrees in seven years.<\/p>\n

After two years as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy, Crofford returned to Vanderbilt for a fellowship in clinical physiology. Vanderbilt in the early 1960s was brimming with scientific excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just in the forefront of the technological revolution in medicine, the scientific revolution, things that were never possible in the past \u2026 That\u2019s where the excitement was. That\u2019s where the fun was,\u201d Crofford said.<\/p>\n

In 1965, Crofford became Vanderbilt\u2019s first full-time diabetes specialist. He established the Division of Diabetes, and helped bring the nation\u2019s first federally funded diabetes research center to Vanderbilt in 1973. He was called to Washington, D.C., to testify on behalf of a bill to increase federal funding for diabetes research.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Congress appropriated $5 million to open five more diabetes centers, and to expand their mission to include the training of diabetes specialists. They are now called Diabetes Research and Training Centers (DRTC).<\/p>\n

The commission also recommended that a study be conducted to determine whether strict control of blood glucose could prevent the disabling and life-threatening complications of diabetes, including blindness, kidney failure, amputation and heart disease. The NIH asked Crofford to help get it started.<\/p>\n

Two years after the DCCT ended, Crofford began a new chapter in his life, moving with his wife, Jane, to his family\u2019s 700-acre spread in the Ozark Mountains to raise Black Angus bulls.<\/p>\n

He returned to Vanderbilt in December 2013 for the Annual Diabetes Day where Powers announced the creation of a lectureship in Crofford\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Distinguished Career Oscar Crofford, M.D., is the recipient of the 2014 VUSM Distinguished Alumnus Award, and will be recognized during Reunion Weekend in October. Among his many achievements, Crofford led a landmark study called the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) that established the value of rigorous blood glucose control and revolutionized the treatment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-alumni-profile","category-vm-summer-2014"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-44","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}