Combining Scientific and Medical Expertise with Empathy to Advance Diabetes Care and Population Health Across University Hospitals

UH Research & Education Update

Betul Hatipoglu, MD, sees in medicine a beautiful world of opportunity, a village in which every clinician and researcher finds a place for themselves. She has found hers as an internationally respected endocrinologist who combines science, medicine and education to help patients and advance standard care.

Betul Hatipoglu, MD

“My motivation has always been to be useful to humanity,” she says. “Education, research and clinical care are a continuum, with clinical care feeding ideas for research.” Likewise, scientific projects organically generate opportunities to train and work with fellows, residents and medical students.

Dr. Hatipoglu is the Medical Director of the Diabetes & Metabolic Care Center, and the Mary B. Lee Chair in Adult Endocrinology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, and Vice Chair for UH System Clinical Affairs. She is also a Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Throughout her career, Dr. Hatipoglu’s clinical interests have encompassed a range of metabolic and endocrine disorders, including cardiovascular disease in diabetes, population health and patient education. As a researcher, she is focused on advancing therapeutic approaches and technologies available for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes and pancreatitis.

Prior to joining UH in September 2020, Dr. Hatipoglu played a key role in the development and FDA approval of Latindra™, a breakthrough allogenic pancreatic islet cell therapy for patients with Type 1 diabetes and persistent hypoglycemia. The procedure uses insulin-producing islet cells from a cadaver donor pancreas, processed at a remote laboratory and transplanted to help regulate blood sugar. Under Dr. Hatipoglu’s leadership, UH became the first site in Ohio approved to administer this therapy late last year.

A Life Devoted to Science, Health and Wellness

“My scientific journey can be a testimony to what it means to be flexible, what it means open to opportunities, and change things you probably ever thought you should, given circumstances from life itself and from the environment at work and science and so forth,” says Dr. Hatipoglu.

Dr. Hatipoglu earned a medical degree from Istanbul University School of Medicine (now Cerrahpaşa) in 1992. Her interest in medicine was rooted in her love of science, a desire to help people, and family.

She completed her residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago followed by a fellowship in endocrinology. Dr. Hatipoglu was involved in the development of the islet cell transplant program, working as the Medical Director of the Pancreas and Islet Cell Transplant Program and leading a team of basic and clinical scientists advancing the new technology with transplant surgery. “As a young investigator it was extremely exciting for me to be involved in something that was just starting.”

Throughout her career, she benefited from the guidance of many mentors, including  Arthur B. Schneider, MD, PhD,  a global renowned leader in radiation oncology known for his work on the effects of radiation and thyroid cancer, and Elena Barengolts, MD, a prominent endocrinologist specializing in metabolic health, obesity, and diabetes, who also played a key role in launching Dr. Hatipoglu’s career.

However, despite much professional success, when her son was born with a serious heart condition and diagnosed with autism a few years later, Dr. Hatipoglu shifted her intense focus from work to prioritizing the complex needs of her son and decided to move to Cleveland to access the resources and care available.

Before joining University Hospitals, Dr. Hatipoglu directed the Autologous Islet Cell Transplant Program for pancreatitis patients at the Cleveland Clinic. In 2020, she was recruited to University Hospitals by Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM, Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer for UH, energized by the opportunity to build a Diabetes & Metabolic Care Center designed to advance the management of diabetes and chronic illness across the UH patient population.  

For the Love of Medicine

For Dr. Hatipoglu, medicine is a fire that burns from within. She tells physicians in training, “You have to genuinely love medicine, love people. Making money cannot be a motivating factor," she says.

Her fiery spirit, relentless drive, strong work ethic, resilience and collaborative approach, she says, have enabled her to thrive. With hardship, she has learned to persevere. “I am not a quitter,” she says with resounding determination.

In addition to her clinical and research endeavors, Dr. Hatipoglu has received numerous teaching and mentorship awards and is involved in national and international endocrine organizations.

Outside of work, she became a trained Reiki master to better meet the health needs of her son. She is also an herbalist, an expertise she says helps with diabetes, thyroid and endocrine illnesses when patients ask about supplements and options beyond standard medicine. For relaxation and enjoyment, she paints in her free time.

Dr. Hatipoglu’s combined interests and personal experience inform her holistic approach to caring for patients, well-tuned in the power of empathy and human connection and vested in the power of new research.

“I feel like everything I’ve gone through just gives me strength,” says Dr. Hatipoglu. “The biggest reward I get is when patients tell me—which I hear a lot— ‘Oh, man, I feel so much better.’”