Novo Nordisk and Diabetes UK extend ‘Clinical Champions’ initiative
pharmafile | October 6, 2015 | News story | Medical Communications | Novo Nordisk, diabetes
Diabetes UK and Novo Nordisk have announced the appointment of 20 Diabetes UK ‘Clinical Champions’, who will be supported and empowered in their workplace to transform care for people living with diabetes.
Differences in the delivery of diabetes care and treatment has led to variations in patient outcomes, and the charity recognises the urgent need to address these issues to ensure people living with the condition consistently receive the best possible care and treatment.
Diabetes UK says the Clinical Champions initiative- a collaboration between itself and Novo Nordisk- is crucial in helping to achieve this.
A total of 20 Clinical Champions have been selected by the charity this year based on their skills, clinical expertise, passion and integrity. A key ingredient in the selection process is to identify Champions with the potential to make a real difference by delivering tangible improvements in care.
The Clinical Champions will be in their roles for two years and will receive the support and personal and professional development they need to become catalysts for change in their areas of expertise and to act as advocates for people with diabetes.
Ultimately, Diabetes UK says the scheme will help them develop the knowledge and skills to deliver the leadership needed at a local level to promote the needs of people with diabetes among commissioners, service managers and healthcare professionals.
The Clinical Champion programme was launched by Diabetes UK last year with funding and support from Novo Nordisk, with the recruitment of the first tranche of 10 Clinical Champions across a mix of specialist consultants, GPs and diabetes specialist nurses.
The existing Champions have already delivered such transformations as the introduction of a simple medication algorithm across four clinical commissioning groups in Birmingham to ensure patients have equal access to treatment regardless of where they live.
Chris Askew, chief executive of Diabetes UK, comments: “Clinicians are uniquely well placed to identify how diabetes services could be improved, but are all too often left frustrated and unable to deliver this change. However, as Clinical Champions, they have the unique opportunity to draw on their expertise and take action to make a real difference to the lives of people living with diabetes.
“There is a diabetes crisis in the UK with 3.9 million people living with the condition, 590,000 of whom don’t realise it as they have not yet been diagnosed. There is clear evidence that investment in better diabetes care brings about both human and economic benefit; having effective services in place helps reduce the personally devastating, and costly, health complications that can develop as a result of diabetes being poorly managed. As such, the Champions have an essential role to play in promoting and delivering on innovative best practice.”
Klaus Henning Jensen, Novo Nordisk’s head of Clinical, Medical and Regulatory Affairs for UK and Ireland, says: “We are extremely proud to be supporting Diabetes UK with this enterprising project. We believe that empowering and partnering with highly dedicated healthcare professionals is one of the best ways to help improve diabetes services, and the fact this project specifically engages Champions across all four UK nations adds an important additional focus. We hope that through the dedicated training and additional support they receive this new cadre of Clinical Champions will be able to make real and impactful changes to the lives of those living with diabetes across the UK.”
One of the newly-appointed Clinical Champions, Dr Sam Rice, consultant phsician and Endocrinologist at Hywel Dda University Health Board, adds: “Diabetes is an ever increasing burden to both patients and their care providers. In the current resource-stretched environment it is vital to consider and develop innovations that address patient requirement as well as our ability to deliver care. In my experience, attempts to develop and deliver changes in care processes within large NHS organisations can be both frustrating and disheartening.
“I hope this role will provide me with the skill set necessary to increase the delivery and extend new concepts of care that will ultimately help us to support patients to manage their diabetes while also receiving the clinical care they need.
For more information about the project, visit https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Professionals/Service-improvement/Clinical-Champions-and-networks/
Joel Levy
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