Distinguished Staff: Brenda Montgomery coordinates diabetes prevention trial

Brenda Montgomery

Brenda Montgomery will tell you that careful planning and a tremendous grassroots effort are the reasons the UW Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is meeting its goals. Her peers will give you another reason: Brenda Montgomery.

One of this year's Distinguished Staff Award winners, Montgomery has been the DPP program coordinator since this clinical trial of methods to prevent Type 2 diabetes was in its infancy in 1995.

Before joining the DPP, Montgomery was a nurse in the intensive care unit at UW Medical Center, and a research nurse in the bone marrow unit at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Burn Center at Harborview Medical Center. "My previous jobs have been either trauma or cancer. This work is different, it's about prevention," she said.

For the 125 people currently enrolled in the DPP study, 10,000 were screened to see whether their risk levels met the criteria of the study. By the end of the study, researchers and staff of the DPP will have screened an estimated 20,000 people to see whether they are at risk of developing the disease.

Researchers don't know exactly what causes Type 2 diabetes. There is no cure, but they know risk factors such as high blood-sugar levels are associated with the onset of the disease.

For Montgomery, who goes out into the community several times a month to talk to groups about preventing the disease, it is very satisfying work, particularly when she helps someone make life-changes to prevent high blood-sugar levels even though the person is not participating in the study.

"We're giving people the tools to prevent the disease and we're really getting the word out," she says.

But Montgomery's commitment to fighting the disease goes deeper than that. "There's a real personal reason for me in stopping this disease," she said.

Six years ago, during a pregnancy, she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, a high blood-sugar level condition that researchers believe can lead to Type 2 diabetes. Constant efforts to control her blood-sugar level have kept diabetes at bay, but it will be a life-long battle.

Montgomery oversees the recruitment of individuals in the Seattle area to participate in the study. So far, the UW center, one of 25 participating centers in the country, is among the top five in reaching its recruitment goal.

Dr. Steven Kahn, principal investigator for the study at the UW, credits Montgomery's skills as a leader. "Many of the systems she has instituted here in Seattle have been adopted by the DPP Research Group nationally and are being utilized in the 25 clinical centers around the country," he said.

On top of it all, Montgomery has time for regular trips to Hawaii. Far from a vacation, however, Montgomery makes these trips to provide leadership for a new DPP clinic she was instrumental in developing at the University of Hawaii . She trained the staff to carry out the screening, enrollment and intervention activities required for the site to participate in the trial. The site is now also performing above its initial recruitment goal.

"She has the ability to inspire those around her to believe in the greater mission of the work at hand and to deliver their best performance," said Alison Shaw, administrative manager of the Department of Medicine's diabetes endocrinology research core.

Montgomery also makes sure she makes the time to spend with her two children and husband. She said she hopes that by working hard to stop diabetes, she will set a good example for her children, who may someday face the same struggle she faces against the disease.

Montgomery received national recognition recently when she was selected to chair the Clinical Operations Group, which is responsible for monitoring operations throughout the trial, providing leadership and assistance to clinics, and for reporting information that will directly influence funding decisions to National Institutes of Health officials.

Recognition with a Distinguished Staff Award is an equal honor, Montgomery said, because it is recognition from the peers she works with every day. "It means they have a lot of faith in me, and that's a huge honor," she said. ¶

Will Morton