Addressing the pressing needs of diabetes care --China Diabetes Education Program, a decade multi-partnership effort

Diabetes is a common and growing public health problem in China. In 1996, Project HOPE, a US-based health education organization, together with BD, Eli Lilly and Roche Diagnostics, responded to an urgent plea from Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) to address the growing problem of diabetes care in China by conducting a needs assessment in China. Key findings indicated a significant and rising diabetes prevalence, low diagnosis rate, limited diabetes education for medical personnel and patients, lack of public awareness, and low treatment rate due to high cost and limited access to services. The assessment resulted in the China Diabetes Education Program (CDEP) a Train-the-Trainer program implemented by Project HOPE. A Senior Technical Advisory Group (SENTAG) of Chinese and international experts was created to provide professional guidance to the program. A standardized curriculum was developed to include pathophysiology and treatment of diabetes as well as teaching strategies for peer education and for patient education.

During the period of 1998-2005, the program has established Diabetes Training Centers in 10 distinguished University Hospital settings, trained 1577 trained trainers from all 31 Provinces of China, representing 812 hospitals and community healthcare centers. More than 165,000 patients and 37,000 medical professionals have benefited. The program is recognized by the Chinese government and the academic societies as an excellent model for training health care professionals in comprehensive diabetes management. A multi-center, randomized study also demonstrated that the patient education program developed by the CDEP can help patients gain better self-care and blood glucose control.

To address the pressing needs at the community level under current medical reform in China, Project HOPE and the three sponsoring companies continued to work together on a two-year extension(2007-2009)—Bring Diabetes Care and Education to Community. The extension plan is focusing on piloting a practical and replicable community diabetes care model for the rest of China, as anticipated by MOH.

CDEP is a good example of a collaborative partnership between NGO, industry, local health systems and government. It also proves that effective collaborations and compelling interventions remains the best way to make meaningful advances against the pervasive health issue.