Early Type 1 Diabetes Clinic Leads the Nation

The Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in partnership with Children’s Hospital Colorado, is one of the largest diabetes institutes in the world, providing care to over 7,500 children and adults each year. The newly opened Early Type 1 Diabetes Clinic focuses on a smaller subset — those at risk or in the earliest stages of the disease — and it’s already setting the national standard for care.  

Kimber Simmons, MD, MS, opened the clinic in 2022 shortly after the FDA approved teplizumab, a monoclonal antibody treatment to slow the clinical onset of type 1 diabetes.  

Doctors have classified the progression of diabetes into three stages. In stage 1, individuals test positive for two or more diabetes-related autoantibodies but typically maintain normal blood sugar levels. In stage 2, blood sugar levels become abnormal. Teplizumab is designed to be administered in stage 2 to delay the onset of the disease.  

“It pauses people where they are,” Dr. Simmons explains. “This allows the beta cells that make insulin to stay around longer.” 

The Early T1D Clinic leads the nation in administering teplizumab. So far, 30 patients have received the full 14-day infusion treatment, which greatly exceeds the number given at other clinics. On average, teplizumab delays type 1 diabetes by two to three years. The clinic continues to monitor patients afterward, as they will eventually develop diabetes.

Early screening for type 1 diabetes is crucial. It helps identify those who will develop type 1 diabetes and allows them to choose earlier treatments. Over the past few years, the Barbara Davis Center has screened over 30,000 kids for type 1 diabetes. Because it can develop at any age, Dr. Simmons encourages providers to look out for signs and symptoms, especially as they often overlap with other conditions. 

“Checking glucose is simple and can make sure patients are safe. Anyone who has a family member with type 1 diabetes, the recommendations are to screen for type 1 diabetes autoantibodies,” Dr. Simmons says. 

The Early T1D Clinic is dedicated to type 1 diabetes prevention. In the future, Dr. Simmons hopes to offer a wider variety of treatments as prevention research continues to progress.  

“Since the approval of teplizumab, there’s a lot of interest from startups. I’m hopeful there will be more discovery and therapies available in early stages,” she says. “To provide the best patient care, it takes a strong multidisciplinary team. We’re still learning a lot.”