Merck kicks off its Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in collaboration with Emirates Diabetes Society (EDS) for the first time in United Arab Emirates

Merck (www.merckgroup.com), a leading company for top-quality high-tech products in the pharmaceutical, chemical and life-science sectors, in collaboration with Emirates Diabetes Society (EDS) today announces the start of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Diabetes education for medical, nursing and pharmacy undergraduates and primary healthcare providers so that  ultimately they act as  Diabetes ambassadors across the UAE.

The 5 year program will be accredited by the European Accreditation Council of Continuous medical Education (EACCME) and developed by EXCEMED – Excellence in Medical Education and Oxford Centre of Diabetes, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK.

The impact of the Merck Diabetes education program will be even further due to a free educational platform, www.managediabetesonline.org, to centralize and disseminate the educational value of the unique program across the globe. 

During his visit to United Arab Emirates, Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board and Family Board of E. Merck KG and member of the Merck family, said: “Merck is pleased to launch the Merck Capacity Advancement Program in UAE as part of our commitment to building healthcare capacity and providing sustainable access to high-quality health solutions and safe medicines in the Middle East.”

“The CAP will provide critical education and empowerment to those affected and dealing with diabetes to show the way to manage and prevent the silent deadly disease.” he added Emirates Diabetes Society – EDS plays a vital role in educating health providers who in turn help care-givers deal better with the syndrome. EDS is collaborating with Merck to arrange this course for Students of health Sciences.

Rasha Kelej, Vice President, Head of Global Business Responsibility and Market Development, Merck Serono, emphasized:” Merck Capacity Advancement Program- CAP as part of Merck responsibility agenda will improve access to better Diabetes care as part of our commitment to the social and economic development of UAE. Supporting Diabetes education will contribute significantly to improving awareness, early diagnosis and prevention of the disease across the country”.

“The 5 year program was kicked off successfully in Africa, India and Indonesia and will further expand to other African and Asian countries in 2015 in order to establish Merck Africa- Asia Platform for Global health,” Kelej added.

“The high prevalence of diabetes is alarming,” says Dr. Abdulrazzaq Al Madani, Chairman  of the Emirates Diabetes Society (EDS),” It gives us immense pleasure to invite the stakeholders in the field of medicine and diabetes in UAE in joint collaboration with EDS and Merck, this Diabetes education course aims to provide guidelines and clinical practice for prevention, diagnosis and management of diabetes and its complications. It is estimated that there are almost 804,000 people over the age of 20 years with diabetes in the UAE, another 500,000 people are at the stage of pre-diabetes. The objective of this initiative is to increase the level of knowledge around diabetes for nursing and pharmacy students to address the  non- physicians healthcare community  who will work in the near future with patients to help them prevent, understand and control their disease”.

Dr. Mohamed Farghaly, Member of UAE national guideline and national diabetes technical committees and Middle East advisor world organization of family medicine and chairman of the scientific committee of family medicine society (Emirate Medical Association welcomed the program “We are happy with our partnership with Merck to develop this program to support diabetes care in UAE. This program will address a new angel in Diabetes Care, Students who will be the future healthcare providers.”

He added “In recent years, we have seen a rapid rise in type 2 diabetes across all age groups. The UAE is ranked 16th worldwide, with 19.2% of the UAE population living with diabetes. These statistics indicate that the region has high risk factors for diabetes, mostly related to rising obesity rates and physical inactivity. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop accredited teaching programs for health sciences students  so that diabetics don’t need to go specialists but basic management can be done by primary health care providers .”

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 United Arab Emirates by supporting the healthcare system to prevent, diagnose and manage the condition effectively. As part of the Merck Capacity Advancement Program, 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, 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 epidemic. Merck is planning to target more than 12,000 students by the end of 2018 expanding to more African and Asian Universities.

Dr. Ahmed Reja, Vice president of Ethiopia University of Health sciences and chair elect of International Diabetes Federation of Africa, President of Ethiopian Diabetes Association and Red Cross Society said “We are happy to partner with Merck, to implement Merck’s Capacity Advancement Program in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. This program is powerful, effective and well suited to Diabetes care needs in Africa with the purpose of improving medical research, health education and clinical practice and hence enhancing the quality of life of people live with diabetes across the continent.”

He emphasized that a change in medical Undergraduates Syllabus and medical education policies are needed urgently to keep base with the changes of the emerging disease such as diabetes and non communicable diseases” .

Paolo Carli, Head of Middle East & Egypt emphasized, “We hope to maintain a long-standing relationship with EDS and other valuable health partners to improve the healthcare standard in order to tackle diabetes and non–communicable diseases in UAE and the rest of Middle East as a part of Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP)”.

“People need to be sensitive to their physical condition and be alert in recognizing the early symptoms of diabetes and this responsible program will contribute significantly toward this goal” he added.

In addition to medical education and awareness, Merck shall continue to work with partners in UAE at large to expand the capacity of professionals in diabetes management through its Capacity Advancement Program.