The Associated Press

ATHENS, Ohio - A new health center opening next year in southeast Ohio will combat high rates of heart disease and diabetes among Appalachian residents.

Construction on the Cornwell Center for Cardiovascular and Diabetes Care will begin this fall, officials announced Friday. The facility, expected to cost $2.5 million to $3 million, will be attached to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital and is expected to be completed by late spring. It is funded in part by a $1.2 million donation from longtime Athens residents Foster Cornwell and Helen Cornwell.

The center will provide services that Appalachian residents now have to drive hours to obtain, such as cardiac catheterization, a procedure that detects blocked arteries.

"You come there, and you get everything," said Mitchell Silver, a Columbus heart doctor who will serve as the center's director.

The center also will study why people in Appalachia have higher rates of heart disease and diabetes than the Ohio and U.S. populations and why they suffer more complications from them. It will teach preventative measures such as good nutrition.

For example, in Vinton County, 13.4 percent of residents are diabetic, according to an unreleased study by the Appalachian Rural Health Institute. That's almost double the U.S. rate of 7.6 percent and higher than the 9.1 percent among Ohioans.

Brooke Hallowell, co-director of the rural health institute at Ohio University, believes Appalachia's health problems stem from lack of insurance, poor access to care and cultural patterns.