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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
War Against Diabetes Gets Major Support from New
Alliance of Walgreens and Harvard's Joslin Center
About 23 million senior citizens have
diabetes or pre-diabetes
 September 19, 2006 - Walgreens, the nation's
largest drugstore chain, and Joslin Diabetes Center, a global leader in
diabetes research, care and education, have formed a sweeping alliance
to improve health outcomes for Americans with diabetes. More than one
out of five senior citizens has diabetes and almost 40 percent of
seniors have pre-diabetes. In rough numbers, this is about 23 million
people age 65 and older with the disease or in danger of developing it.
The Joslin expertise communicated through the broad Walgreen network is
certain to reach many of these older Americans.
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Health & Medicine |
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Over the next five years, Walgreens and Joslin, an
affiliate of Harvard Medical School, will develop and deliver awareness,
wellness, prevention and education programs nationally to reach the
estimated 21 million Americans with diabetes and the additional 41
million Americans at risk for the disease. Walgreens also will open a
specialty pharmacy on the Joslin campus under a separate lease
arrangement.
“Diabetes in America continues to grow at epidemic
proportions, and there are too few endocrinologists to handle that many
patients,” said Ron Weinert, vice president of patient services for
Walgreens Health Services, the managed care division of Walgreen Co.
“The burden of care is falling to primary care
physicians and ultimately the patients, many of whom are our customers.
We know the Joslin approach to education, outreach and disease
management improves outcomes for people with diabetes, and our alliance
is specifically designed to increase access to Joslin’s model for
everyone we reach.”
The alliance will leverage all of Joslin’s
expertise in diabetes awareness, prevention and management. This
expertise will be applied across Walgreens consumer channels, including
its nationwide network of pharmacies, Walgreens.com and Walgreens Health
Initiatives (a pharmacy benefit manager).
“This alliance represents a new model of care,
powered by Joslin’s deep research and extensive clinical knowledge, and
distributed ‘from bench to bedside’ to the community through Walgreens
pharmacies,” said C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., President of Joslin and the Mary
K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“The incomparable reach of Walgreens and its deep
commitment to the health of its customers make it our ideal alliance
partner as Joslin strives to deliver our model of patient empowerment
and the aggressive identification and prevention of complications across
the country.”
Pharmacy-Based Resources for People with
Diabetes
A cornerstone of the program will be the creation
of pharmacy-based resources for diabetes prevention and care. Working
together, Walgreens and Joslin will design and build enhanced training
curricula, continuing education programs, and practical support tools
that pharmacists can use to address the most important needs of
patients, from managing medication regimens to understanding key
individual health measures like blood pressure and A1C scores.
“Our joint vision is for the Walgreens pharmacist
to be a true partner for customers with diabetes and their physicians,
and to enable them to work together toward demonstrable and measurable
changes in behavior and health outcomes,” said Alan M. Jacobson, M.D.,
Senior Vice President, Joslin Strategic Initiatives Division.
| |
National Diabetes Fact Sheet
(PDF)
This is the official Fact Sheet developed jointly by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of
Health, the American Diabetes Association, and other partners.
The Fact Sheet is the authoritative source of information,
statistics, and national estimates on diabetes in the United
States. |
“Joslin will design approaches and then assess and
report on their impact on Walgreens customers, and we will continually
enhance and add to the program over time.”
In the first months of the alliance, Walgreens and
Joslin will launch initial patient education campaigns delivered through
the Walgreens pharmacy that carefully target critical aspects of
day-to-day diabetes management and the prevention of complications.
The campaigns will include education handouts, tips
and tools tailored to specific patient audiences, including the elderly
and different ethnic groups disproportionately affected by diabetes.
Aspects of the campaign will be visible on pharmacy prescription
inserts, Walgreens.com, Walgreens Diabetes & You Magazine, and other
communication vehicles.
Joslin and Walgreens are also jointly committed to
developing breakthrough approaches over the long term that increase
access to innovative health services for people with diabetes. The
alliance will explore the possibility of installing the Joslin Vision
NetworkÔ (JVN) in select locations across the Walgreens chain. The JVN
is the most thoroughly validated diagnostic retinal imaging service
offering patients a pain-free and non-dilated diabetic eye evaluation
that facilitates further examination by eye care specialists to treat
diabetic retinopathy and other pathologies. The JVN is already in use at
more than 50 clinical sites in 15 states.
“Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss and
blindness among working age adults in the United States, and yet most
patients do not receive recommended care,” continued Jacobson, who also
directs Joslin’s Behavioral Research Program and Clinic and is Professor
of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “Our Walgreens alliance may
allow us to bring Joslin’s proven techniques in managing eye disease to
the millions of Americans across the country at risk of losing their
vision from diabetic retinopathy.”
New Flagship Pharmacy on Joslin Campus in Boston
Walgreens also intends to open, on the Joslin
Campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, a specialty pharmacy designed
to meet the needs of people with diabetes. “We see this pharmacy as the
flagship of our presence in the Harvard medical community,” said Weinert.
“We expect the pharmacy to open in the first quarter of 2007.”
About Diabetes
in America
Diabetes affects an estimated 20.8 million children
and adults in the United States — 7 percent of the population. An
estimated 14.6 million people in this country have been diagnosed,
leaving 6.2 million unaware that they have the disease. In addition, 41
million Americans are thought to have pre-diabetes, or elevated blood
glucose levels that put them at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. If
untreated or poorly treated, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney
disease, stroke, nerve damage and limb amputations.
About Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body has elevated blood
sugar or glucose. With type 2 diabetes, the body may not make enough
insulin (which helps the body use glucose), the insulin that the body
produces may not work as well as it should, or the body may make too
much glucose. Patients with diabetes can develop heart disease, kidney
disease, blindness, vascular or neurological problems that can lead to
amputation and they can be at risk for increased mortality.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of
the cases. It is estimated that one in three Americans born in 2000 will
develop diabetes sometime during their lifetime. There are currently
more than 194 million people with diabetes worldwide, and if nothing is
done to slow the epidemic, the number will exceed 333 million by 2025.
About Walgreens
Walgreen Co. is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2006
sales of $47.4 billion. The company operates 5,461 stores in 47 states
and Puerto Rico, and plans to operate more than 7,000 stores by 2010.
Walgreens also provides additional services to pharmacy patients and
prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives
(a pharmacy benefits manager), Walgreens Mail Service, Walgreens
Specialty Pharmacy and Walgreens Home Care.
About Joslin Diabetes Center
Joslin Diabetes Center, dedicated to conquering diabetes in all of its
forms, is the global leader in diabetes research, care and education.
Founded in 1898, Joslin is an independent nonprofit institution
affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Joslin research is a team of
more than 300 people at the forefront of discovery aimed at preventing
and curing diabetes. Joslin Clinic, affiliated with Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the nationwide network of Joslin
Affiliated Programs, and the hundreds of Joslin educational programs
offered each year for clinicians, researchers and patients, enable
Joslin to develop, implement and share innovations that immeasurably
improve the lives of people with diabetes. As a nonprofit, Joslin
benefits from the generosity of donors in advancing its mission. For
more information on Joslin, call 1-800-JOSLIN-1 or visit
http://www.joslin.org.
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