India Diabetes Educator Project

In November 2007, Bayer HealthCare, Becton Dickinson (BD), and Lilly agreed to support Project Hope's "India Diabetes Educator Project". This four-year, multi-million dollar collaborative program aims to help health care workers in India reduce morbidity and mortality related to diabetes and to combat the rapidly growing threat of diabetes there. With an estimated 40.9 million people currently living with the condition, India leads the world in the prevalence of diabetes.

The India Diabetes Educator Project offers a comprehensive and sustainable approach that will provide diabetes training to more than 5,000 health care professionals, including nurses, dieticians and nutritionists in India. The project includes mentoring support for newly trained Diabetes Educators and also addresses the role of the educator in empowering the patient to take responsibility for daily self-care and to help prevent the onset of diabetes among those at risk.

The training will be based on the International Curriculum for Diabetes Health Professional Education developed by the International Federation Consultative Section on Diabetes Education (IDF-DECS), adapted for use in India. Implementation of this curriculum will help establish a consistent and standardized protocol for diabetes treatment throughout the country, with the goal of improving patient quality of life and increasing positive self-care behaviors and control of diabetes.

For more information, please visit Project Hope.