The EY Award for Socially Responsible Initiatives

Summary of work

An estimated 497,000 children have type 1 diabetes worldwide. About half live in low-income countries, often without the necessary treatment. These children have high mortality rates, and in some sub-Saharan African countries life-expectancy is less than one year after diagnosis.^(1,2)

As a response, Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company with leadership in diabetes care, established the Changing Diabetes® in Children programme in 2009.Working in partnership with Roche, the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Novo Nordisk aims to build long-term solutions for improving availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of care for children with type 1 diabetes.

The programme establishes clinics where children are diagnosed and receive specialised care. It also trains healthcare professionals, and educates patients and families about caring for a child with diabetes.To overcome financial hurdles, it entails free provision of insulin and blood glucose measuring equipment for the children.

In 2013-2014, 3,489 new children were enrolled, 33 new clinics established and 2,918 new healthcare professionals trained. The programme runs in nine countries.

^{1 International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas, 6th edition, Brussels, Belgium, 2013. 20 October 2014. Available from: http://www.idf. org/sites/default/files/EN_6E_Atlas_Full_0.pdf
2 Yudkin, JS. Insulin for the world’s poorest countries. The Lancet, 2000;355: 919-921.}

Judges' comments

This entry is a great example of partnership working and a project which has been sustained over several years. The programme establishes clinics in developing countries where children with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed and receive specialised care. It also trains healthcare professionals, and educates patients and families about caring for a child with diabetes. To overcome financial hurdles, it entails free provision of insulin and blood glucose measuring equipment for the children. It had a huge impact over the long term and had great uptake with the number of new children enrolled (3,489 last year), 33 new clinics established and almost 3,000 training new healthcare professionals trained. We were all hugely impressed; congratulations to all involved.