Novo Nordisk Joins Nationwide Diabetes/Pre-Diabetes Treatment Alliance

Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest insulin manufacturer, has joined the Diabetes Prevention and Control Alliance (DPCA), a group whose goals are to reduce people’s risk of developing diabetes and to work with people who already have it.

The nationwide partnership includes the Centers for Disease Control, doctors, pharmacists, and the alliance founder, UnitedHealth Group.
The alliance offers two treatment programs, both of which follow guidelines set down by the CDC: the Diabetes Prevention Program, aimed at people who have pre-diabetes, and the Diabetes Control Program, aimed at helping people with diabetes control their disease and reduce the risk of complications.
Novo, whose representatives have long been regular visitors to doctors’ offices, will work closely with physicians who have large numbers of people with pre-diabetes or diabetes in their patient bases. Novo reps will help them set up the prevention and treatment programs.

Other alliance participants, such as pharmacists, will work with doctors to make sure that pre-diabetes and diabetes patients are taking proper medications and keeping up with their dosing schedules.

Novo’s participation in the alliance was spurred partly by the results of a 2009 University of Chicago study it funded. The study concluded that the number of Americans with diabetes would reach 44.1 million by 2034 and cost the economy $336 billion in treatment, hospitalization, and lost productivity.

However, those grim statistics were leavened by encouraging results from tests of the Diabetes Prevention Program undertaken by the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, Indiana University, the YMCA, clinics, and pharmacies. Those results showed that early intervention, in the form of weight loss and changes in diet and exercise levels, can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent.

UnitedHealth, which founded the DPCA in the spring of 2010, is a Minneapolis, Minn.-based health insurer whose six subsidiaries, UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions, serve about 75 million people worldwide.

The company has been working since then with the YMCA and Walgreens drug stores to set up prevention and control programs. The Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program encourages healthy diet, physical activity and exercise, and other behavioral changes to prevent the onset of diabetes. The Diabetes Control Program at Walgreens offers patients who have diabetes access to pharmacists who are specially trained to deal with the disease.

Both programs are now being offered in eight cities: Albuquerque, N.M,; Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Phoenix, Ariz.
The programs will go nationwide in 2012.

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/newsroom/news.aspx?id=3c5f65ba-daeb-4312-ab7b-bd206fd6da90

Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest insulin manufacturer, has joined the Diabetes Prevention and Control Alliance (DPCA), a group whose goals are to reduce people’s risk of developing diabetes and to work with people who already have it.

The nationwide partnership includes the Centers for Disease Control, doctors, pharmacists, and the alliance founder, UnitedHealth Group.
The alliance offers two treatment programs, both of which follow guidelines set down by the CDC: the Diabetes Prevention Program, aimed at people who have pre-diabetes, and the Diabetes Control Program, aimed at helping people with diabetes control their disease and reduce the risk of complications.
Novo, whose representatives have long been regular visitors to doctors’ offices, will work closely with physicians who have large numbers of people with pre-diabetes or diabetes in their patient bases. Novo reps will help them set up the prevention and treatment programs.

Other alliance participants, such as pharmacists, will work with doctors to make sure that pre-diabetes and diabetes patients are taking proper medications and keeping up with their dosing schedules.

Novo’s participation in the alliance was spurred partly by the results of a 2009 University of Chicago study it funded. The study concluded that the number of Americans with diabetes would reach 44.1 million by 2034 and cost the economy $336 billion in treatment, hospitalization, and lost productivity.

However, those grim statistics were leavened by encouraging results from tests of the Diabetes Prevention Program undertaken by the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, Indiana University, the YMCA, clinics, and pharmacies. Those results showed that early intervention, in the form of weight loss and changes in diet and exercise levels, can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 58 percent.

UnitedHealth, which founded the DPCA in the spring of 2010, is a Minneapolis, Minn.-based health insurer whose six subsidiaries, UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions, serve about 75 million people worldwide.

The company has been working since then with the YMCA and Walgreens drug stores to set up prevention and control programs. The Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program encourages healthy diet, physical activity and exercise, and other behavioral changes to prevent the onset of diabetes. The Diabetes Control Program at Walgreens offers patients who have diabetes access to pharmacists who are specially trained to deal with the disease.

Both programs are now being offered in eight cities: Albuquerque, N.M,; Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Phoenix, Ariz.
The programs will go nationwide in 2012.

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/newsroom/news.aspx?id=3c5f65ba-daeb-4312-ab7b-bd206fd6da90

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *