Inadequate control of diabetes can be associated with serious medical complications, including blindness, stroke, heart disease and kidney failure. In fact, diabetes is the second most common cause of blindness in India, surpassed only by cataracts.ⁱⁱⁱ To educate patients about proper diabetes care there is a great need for trained health care professionals in India, including nurses, dieticians and nutritionists.

Training and Education of healthcare professionals is the key to success

“It is important to recognize the health education needs of countries such as India,” said Sandra Peterson, President, Bayer HealthCare Diabetes Care. “With access to standardized diabetes education, health care professionals in India can help empower patients to manage their disease and help prevent long-term complications.”

India is in urgent need of trained Diabetes Educators. That is why Bayer HealthCare supports the India Diabetes Educator Project, a training and health education program for more than 5,000 health care professionals that is run by Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization.

This is the first large-scale initiative to train and educate health care professionals in India about the disease. The four-year program is designed to help health care workers in India reduce medical complications related to diabetes and to combat the rapidly growing threat of diabetes there.

Trained Educators support self-care behaviours and control of diabetes

The training and educational measures address the challenges of assuring an enabling environment for Diabetes Educators and affecting behavior change among primary health care physicians. The program also supports the training of new Diabetes Educators.

The trained Diabetes Educators will motivate patients to take on responsibility for the daily control of diabetes and help to increase prevention among those at risk. Being one of the largest populations with the highest prevalence of diabetes worldwide, India can benefit significantly from higher levels of diabetes self-management education, care, and treatment services.

ⁱ International Diabetes Federation. “Did You Know?” Accessed October 19, 2007 at http://www.idf.org/home/index.cfm?node=37.
ⁱⁱ Warrier, Shobha. “Diabetes: As a Curse on Indians,” November 5, 2002. Accessed July 2007 at http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/05spec.htm.
ⁱⁱⁱ DiabetesIndia.com

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