Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute, LLC Launches New Center to Provide State-of-the-Art Education, Training to Health Pro...( Announcement Comes as New Survey ...),Health

Announcement Comes as New Survey of Health Professionals Finds Acute

Shortage of Skills Training Threatens the Future of Diabetes Care

MILPITAS, Calif., Feb. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- With mounting evidence that many health professionals lack the training and skills to combat the nation's growing epidemic of diabetes, the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute, LLC today opened its first training center in the U.S. to improve how practitioners deliver diabetes care in local communities.

The new facility, based in Silicon Valley, will provide comprehensive training each year for thousands of community-based nurses, physician assistants, diabetes educators and other health professionals using a curriculum developed with national diabetes organizations and academic centers. It addresses an acute shortage of skills training in diabetes management at the community level, which practitioners cite as one of the major obstacles to improving patient outcomes.

"At a time when the costs for diabetes in this country are estimated to be $174 billion annually, the nation needs new strategies to raise the level of care for people with diabetes, including stepped-up education and hands-on training of health professionals working at the local level," said former Acting U.S. Surgeon General, Kenneth P. Moritsugu, M.D., M.P.H., who now serves as the Institute's chairman. "Through this new training center, we will arm those on the front lines in delivering diabetes care with the latest information and practical skills so they can help their patients live healthier, longer lives."

In conjunction with the opening of the new center, the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute, LLC -- joined by Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health -- convened a national Town Hall where leading diabetes experts evaluated the state of diabetes care in this co
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