Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Workshop

From April 23-26, 2019, China Program for Health Innovation and Transformation of Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine (China Program) and U.S.-China Health Summit co-organized the 2019 Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Workshop at Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine / Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. Over 20 Chinese endocrinology directors who are at the front line of China’s diabetes treatment attended the Workshop.

The world’s largest diabetic epidemic is in China, where more than 110 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes. China faces the daunting task of treating and managing the disease in a fragmented health care delivery system that is stifled by an elementary primary care system, uneven distribution of healthcare resources, and multiple challenging social factors such as poverty, work stress, and unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

The Workshop provided participants with the insiders’ perspective of diabetes management experience from top U.S. health care providers, public health and policy researchers from Harvard Medical School and affiliated hospitals, introduced advanced treatment and care models as well as innovative approaches that have been proven to be successful in managing diabetes and related chronic diseases. The Workshop also covered how U.S. insurance companies, health care providers, startups and communities work together to increase healthcare quality while controlling costs.