Project HOPE & Eli Lilly Launce New Diabetes Program in China

June 2, 2008

The health leadership of 12 provinces, as well as the Ministry of Health, the Chinese Center for Communicable Diseases, the Beijing Bureau of Health, the Chinese Medical Doctors Association and the U.S. Embassy joined in the official launching of the "Expanding and Improving Diabetes Care and Education in the Community" initiative, a joint effort of Eli Lilly and Project HOPE. It was attended by local and national media.

In 1998, President Jiang Zemin asked HOPE to develop a country-wide program to train physicians, nurses and health workers in the recognition and treatment of diabetes. At the time, only 20% of those with diabetes in China knew of their illness, before they developed an eye or kidney complication. HOPE carried out its "trainer the trainer" methodology in all 31 provinces. A decade later, over 200,000 have received this training, with the support of Eli Lilly, BD and Roche Diagnostics.

The program announced today, sponsored by Eli Lilly, will expand this training to the community level. A five year initiative, it will establish 7 training centers, principally located in the west. Dr. Carlos Paya, Vice President for Research (Diabetes and Endocrine), and Jorg Ostertag, President of Lilly China spoke to its impact on improving the lives of those with diabetes throughout China. This event was subsequently highlighted in the next-day edition of the China Daily.

Beijing is in the countdown for the August 8th opening of the 2008 Olympic Games. This is seen in the dramatic architecture of newly-constructed buildings: the new terminal at the Airport, the so-called "bird's nest" which will hold the Opening ceremony, the colorful swimming center and the media headquarters designed in the shape of the Olympic torch. It's also seen at the Beijing University Third Hospital.

The Third Hospital, and its Institute of Sports Medicine, is the designated center for the treatment of injuries of the competing athletes. Yu Changlong is the Chief Medical Officer for sports rehabilitation for the 2008 Games. He predicted that most of those that he'll be asked to treat will be athletes with exacerbations of chronic conditions that they'll bring to the Games. Knee, shoulder and ankle diagnoses, in this order, will likely be the most commonly seen. The top inpatient floor of the Institute has been cleared, and is waiting, for the first of the injured athletes.

The President of the Beijing University Health Science Center, Dr. Han Qide, is a remarkable physician leader. He began his career as a family doctor in Western China, earning $6 a month. His practice included delivering babies, setting fractures and performing surgery. He went on to become a revered academic family practitioner--and a prominent political leader, as well.
In addition to his current University responsibilities, Dr. Han is the Chairman of the People's Congress, the 175 person governing body in China, as the leader of his 110,000 member "minority party" which is populated with "intellectuals." He spoke, at length, about his priority for "equity" in access to health care across the country.

Dr. Ke Yang, an internationally-recognized investigator in oncology, is the Executive Vice President of the Health Science Center. She invited HOPE, given our roles with Wuhan University and Shanghai Jaio Tong University, to assist in the recruitment of an outstanding new leader for the Beijing University Nursing School. As in Wuhan and Shanghai, she is eager to engage the School in curriculum reform.

This is in keeping with a similar effort in the Medical School. She observed that, while the School has received acclaim for its reputation in research (molecular level) and clinical practice (specialties), it can benefit from strengthening in two areas: creation of clinical investigators and primary care physicians. For example, in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic, the related published studies were more basic than clinical in nature due to a relative lack of clinical investigators. Her observations were in keeping with those of Dr. Chen Zhu, during last year's visit.