Norton Children’s Hospital, part of Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky, has announced a $15 million commitment from the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation to establish the Wendy Novak Diabetes Institute. 

The lead gift in a $60 million campaign is aimed at expanding diabetes care for children and adults at what is currently the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center. The latest funding will enable the institute to expand its facility and workforce, increase patient support, bolster and develop programming, and increase research. In 2013, the foundation awarded $5 million to help establish the Novak Center.

Nearly half a million children and adults in Kentucky have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, a rate of 14 percent, the eighth highest rate in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Norton Healthcare and Norton Children’s provide care for more than 69,000 patients with diabetes, spanning 137 counties in Kentucky and southern Indiana. Of those, approximately 1,400 are children.

“We are confident that with the strategic partnership with Norton Children’s and Norton Healthcare, and the outstanding leadership of Dr. Kupper Wintergerst, one of the most renowned endocrinologists in the world, we can continue to climb the rankings and become the best practice institution others will want to emulate,” said David Novak, founder of the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation and former chair and CEO of Yum! Brands, headquartered in Louisville. “We see this impacting not only Louisville but the world.”

(Photo credit: Jamie Rhodes/Norton Healthcare)