Merck Unites with African and Asian Universities to Raise Diabetes Awareness

Merck, a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials, in collaboration with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and Directorate of Medical Education & Research is introducing European Accredited Clinical Diabetes management for more than 5000 medical students in 18 medical colleges of Maharashtra University as part of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Asia. 

The course is European accredited and will be incorporated in the MBBS curricula of 18 medical colleges. It is aimed to build the future diabetes health care capacity in Maharashtra.

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Dr. Stefan Oschmann, Vice Chairman and Deputy CEO of Merck said, “Merck is pleased to collaborate with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and Directorate of Medical Education & Research as part of our commitment to building health care capacity and providing sustainable access to high-quality health solutions and safe medicines in India. It marks another step in our commitment to working with governments and other stakeholders in building healthcare capacity with a focus on non-communicable diseases in various countries in Asia-Pacific, Middle East Africa and Latin America."

Prof. Dr Arun Jamkar, Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, MUHS- Nashik emphasized, “It gives us immense pleasure to invite the stakeholders in the field of medicine and diabetes in Maharashtra In joint collaboration with DMER and Merck, this diabetes education course aims to provide guidelines and clinical practice for prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes and its complications for medical undergraduates of the 18 medical colleges in Maharashtra university.”

Rasha Kelej, Vice President, Head of Global Business Responsibility and Market Development, Merck Serono, added, “The lack of financial means is not the only challenge but a scarcity of trained health care personnel capable to tackle the prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes at all levels of the health care systems. Therefore Merck aims to address the current constraints in the health system to effectively manage diabetes and the need for developing workable strategies for ensuring timely and appropriate management with extensive linkage and support for enhancing the availability of trained manpower as part of our commitment to contributing towards the social and economic development of India and the rest of the Asian continent.”

“The socio-economic burden of the disease can be reduced by timely intervention from trained healthcare professional as many patients can be prevented from becoming diabetics if diagnosed at early stage,” she added.

The Merck Capacity Advancement Program aims at expanding the professional capacity in the areas of research and development, clinical research, supply chain integrity and efficiency, pharmacovigilance, medical education and awareness for medical and pharmacy undergraduates, physicians and pharmacists in rural areas.

The 5-year program was kicked off successfully in 7 sub-Saharan countries which are Kenya, Uganda, Namibia Angola, Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique and will further expand to other Sub-Saharan and Asian countries in 2014.

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Based on its long experience in diabetes management, which began in 1957 with the development of metformin, Merck seeks to raise awareness of diabetes in India by educating the public and supporting the health care system to prevent, diagnose and manage the condition effectively.

As part of the Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP), by end of 2015, more than 5,000 medical students in partnership with African universities such as University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Namibia University and University of Ghana, in addition to Asian universities such as Maharashtra University in India and University of Indonesia will benefit from European-accredited clinical diabetes and chronic diseases management training, which is seeking to equip them with skills to avert the diabetes and hypertension epidemic.

Merck is planning to target more than 15,000 students by the end of 2018 expanding to more African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries with special focus on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, thyroid dysfunction and fertility management. The program also focuses on building research capacity and improving supply chain in order to improve patient safety in Africa.

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