Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Morehouse School of Medicine Partner to Spread Lessons from Together on Diabetes™ Initiative
$2.1M grant to the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse
will share best practices and promote replication of
successful programs
The Bristol-Myers
Squibb Foundation and Morehouse
School of Medicine (MSM) today jointly announced the creation of the
Morehouse School of Medicine/Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Partnership
for Equity in Diabetes. The partnership will be based at MSM’s
National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) in Atlanta.
The partnership, which is funded through a five-year, $2.1 million grant
from the Foundation, will share successful models and best practices
emerging from the Foundation’s Together on Diabetes initiative
and other demonstration projects with the broader U.S. diabetes,
community health, public health and primary care practice communities.
To date, Together on Diabetes has provided $44.4 million in
funding to grantees that are developing, implementing and evaluating
community-based care and support projects in and with more than 55
heavily affected communities across the U.S.
“Given the devastating impact of diabetes on minorities, the elderly and
the poor, there is great urgency to both figure out what works and to
share and scale those solutions,” said John L. Damonti, president,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. “We are fortunate to partner in this
work with Morehouse School of Medicine, which is a constant and
transformative force in creating health equity in the United States.”
“Through this grant and the formation of the Partnership for Equity in
Diabetes, we have a strategic opportunity to celebrate what is really
working in diverse communities across the country, to share their
lessons learned and to engage new communities in working together to
achieve more optimal diabetes health outcomes for all,” said George
Rust, Professor of Family Medicine and Director, NCPC, Morehouse School
of Medicine.
Announcement of the partnership comes during National Minority Health
Month, which is a call to action and unity in the effort to reduce
health disparities. Type 2 diabetes is a serious public health problem
in the U.S. that places a disproportionately higher disease burden on
minority populations. Approximately 18.7 percent of African Americans
and 11.8 percent of Hispanic/Latino Americans over age 20 live with the
disease compared with 8.3 percent of the total U.S. population.
Compounding these statistics, minority populations also face disparities
in access to services and supports needed for successful and sustained
control of their diabetes.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation launched Together on Diabetes in
the United States in November 2010. The five-year, $100 million U.S. arm
of the initiative targets adult populations disproportionately affected
by type 2 diabetes and focuses on improving their health outcomes by
strengthening patient self-management education, cultivating
community-based supportive services and promoting broad-based community
mobilization.
NCPC is the only congressionally sanctioned academic research, training
and resource center focused on promoting excellence in
community-oriented primary care and optimal health outcomes for all
Americans, with a special focus on serving underserved communities.
Through this partnership, NCPC will capture, spread and replicate
successes drawn from Together on Diabetes grantees and other
demonstration and quality improvement projects through three core
activities:
-
An online learn-share-connect portal and resource center for training
and implementation support
-
Identification and mobilization of five implementation experts from
the base of grantees who will help other communities apply the lessons
learned, and
-
Starting in late 2014, recruitment and engagement of 10 to 12
community coalitions to comprehensively implement successful models of
clinic and community care and support, track diabetes clinical and
self-management outcomes and participate in a national learning
collaborative.
You can learn more about Together on Diabetes at www.TogetherOnDiabetes.com.
To view an interactive map showing the location and project details of
the Together on Diabetes project sites in the U.S., go to www.bms.com/togetherondiabetes/partners/Pages/partners-map.aspx.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The mission of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is to promote health
equity and improve the health outcomes of populations disproportionately
affected by serious diseases and conditions, by strengthening
community-based health care worker capacity, integrating medical care
and community-based supportive services, and mobilizing communities in
the fight against disease.
About Morehouse School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine, located in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded
in 1975 as a two-year Medical Education Program at Morehouse College
with clinical training affiliations with several established medical
schools for awarding the M.D. degree. In 1981, MSM became an
independently chartered institution and the first medical school
established at a Historically Black College and University in the 20th
century. MSM is among the nation's leading educators of primary care
physicians and was recently recognized as the top institution among U.S.
medical schools for our social mission. Our faculty and alumni are noted
in their fields for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy,
and are known in the community for exceptional, culturally appropriate
patient care.
Morehouse School of Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Colleges
of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctoral
and master’s degrees. To learn more, please visit msm.edu.
