About Us

The National Diabetes Education Program

The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) began in 1997, under the sponsorship of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) www.niddk.nih.gov/index.htm and the Division of Diabetes Translation www.cdc.gov/diabetes/ of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NDEP’s objective is to improve diabetes management and thus reduce the sickness and death from diabetes and its complications. The program supports a major federal government public health initiative, Healthy People 2010, www.healthypeople.gov/ whose goals include increasing quality and years of life, and eliminating health disparities among segments of the population.

The program’s sponsorship by two major health agencies of the federal government, NIH and CDC, provides a firm basis of credibility, commitment, resources, and links to state and local public health agencies nationwide. The participation of the full range of diabetes organizations, and the program’s partnerships with 200 health professional, community, and consumer groups and private sector organizations, ensure broad and meaningful input in its design, effective implementation, wide dissemination of its messages, and continued growth.

The NDEP aims to change the way diabetes is treated-by the media, by the public, and by the health care system. In the past 3 years, NDEP program messages have reached more than 180 million people through nationwide campaigns and community activities.

Program audiences include:

• People with diabetes and their families with special emphasis on racial/ethnic populations;
• Health care providers;
• Payers and purchasers of health care and health care system policy makers; and
• The general public, including the estimated 5.2 million people who have undiagnosed diabetes, and people at risk for the disease.

The Business and Managed Care Work Group

An essential component of the NDEP is its national network of public and private sector partners. The Business and Managed Care (BMC) Work Group is one of more than a dozen partner-based program groups that develop programs to create and disseminate many NDEP products.

The BMC Work Group aims to increase awareness of the clinical and economic benefits of quality diabetes care among employers, benefits managers, and managed care decisionmakers. The BMC Work Group also promotes prevention of diabetes through worksite interventions.

In late 1999, the BMC Work Group published the report "Making a Difference: The Business Community Takes on Diabetes," for business decisionmakers. The report summarizes the economic and health consequences of diabetes, and the benefits of investing in prevention. The report also provides a rationale for implementing diabetes-related health promotion actions and includes suggestions for increasing diabetes prevention practices at the worksite.

With the launch of www.diabetesatwork.org, the BMC Work Group and the NDEP continue their commitment to improving the business community’s understanding of diabetes and the important role and impact businesses can have on promoting worksite diabetes interventions.