Increasing Patient Awareness
- Afghanistan is one of the deadliest places for a woman to give birth, with only 14 percent of women accessing medical care during delivery. The Abbott Fund is working with Direct Relief International and the Afghan Institute for Learning to reverse these staggering statistics. To date, 220,000 women and children have received health care services and over 65 midwives have been trained in an effort to rebuild the nation's health care capacity.
- Amalie Wind from Ringe, Denmark, has rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Hardly anyone at school understood why she wasn't capable of doing everything they could do. With research on the internet, Amalie learned that Abbott Denmark had an "RA suit" that gives the wearer a sense for what it's like to have RA. We arranged to have it brought to her school. Students and teachers tried it on and now the school community understands the daily difficulties encountered by people with RA.
Abbott believes in empowering people through education and information about diseases and products to help them make informed treatment decisions. Patients' level of awareness and knowledge of diseases, their symptoms and treatment options can greatly influence quality of care. We share information about our products and the diseases they address; promote education about disease prevention, treatment and management; and disclose our policies and practices related to clinical research.
Accurate, up-to-date information about disease prevention, management and treatment options is critical for physicians as well as patients.
Spurring Research, Supporting Physicians
Abbott is a leading sponsor of Within Our Reach, the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation's multiyear fundraising campaign to accelerate rheumatoid arthritis research and enhance rheumatologists' ability to treat the disease in all its stages. The program will enable new research and build on existing scientific knowledge and recent advancements to ultimately find a cure for a disease that currently affects some two million Americans and costs the U.S. $80 billion.*
"A better scientific understanding of RA could help us treat those patients who are still in pain despite the best treatments. It could also enable us to diagnose or even predict new cases of RA so we can stop the disease before it starts," says Rebecca Hoffman, divisional vice president, immunology development. "Abbott is committed to helping researchers better understand the underlying mechanism of RA – research that offers immense potential to benefit patients in terms of novel treatment approaches or even a cure."
| * | American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation |
Diabetes Treatment Starts with Education
Working with the American Diabetes Association, we are educating Latino communities about managing the disease and leading healthy lifestyles. In Bolivia, where diabetes affects more than 7 percent of the population but goes undiagnosed and untreated, we are supporting a diabetes education and treatment center, which has screened 12,000 people and trained over 600 health professionals.
Improving Maternal Care in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places for a woman to give birth. Only 14 percent of women have access to medical care during delivery. To help reverse the country's high maternal mortality rate and increase the survival and overall health of infants and children, the Abbott Fund is working with Direct Relief International and the Afghan Institute for Learning to expand medical capacity and health services for women. Our support has included the training of female nurses and midwives and the provision of nutritional and pharmaceutical products. As a result, more than 220,000 women and children have received services, including reproductive health care, vaccinations, nutritional assessments for children and health education classes for women.
Other program results include:
- A partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric
AIDS Initiative and its Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence Network to
train African doctors.
"Like many other physicians and other health professionals in Africa, I had to deal daily with many HIV-infected children, but with inadequate training and skills. Now, having been both a trainee and trainer in these BIPAI network trainings, I have to say that these trainings offer an excellent, interactive way of imparting knowledge and skills to African health personnel in managing HIV-infected children. The bottom line is, no matter how much antiretroviral medication you have available, if the people responsible for prescribing and dispensing them and monitoring patients do not have the required skills, then the whole process is doomed to fail. After every training session, almost all participants expressed a newfound readiness and excitement about taking care of HIV-infected children."
—Dr. Marape, Botswana physician currently with Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) at Texas Children's Hospital
- A 25 percent reduction in premature infant mortality rates at Kosovo's major neonatal hospital. This achievement resulted through a partnership with Dartmouth College of Medicine and AmeriCares, which trained 52 health professionals, upgraded equipment at the hospital, and provided Survanta, a surfactant to treat underdeveloped lungs of premature infants.
- A nutritional assessment of more than 90,000 children in partnership with Direct Relief International at Angkor Hospital for Children in Cambodia. The program educated 150 staff and health care workers on pediatric health and nutrition issues, treated children for severe malnutrition, and conducted nutrition information classes for more than 2,000 families.
