Johnson & Johnson today cut the ribbon on its J&J Diabetes Institute, a dedicated facility on its Silicon Valley LifeScan campus for schooling healthcare professionals on diabetes management – as well as a few J&J diabetes products.

J&J aims to train 2,500 healthcare professionals a year at the facility, in Milpitas, CA, including community-level physicians, diabetes educators, NPs and PAs.

“Healthcare professionals in communities are on the front lines of diabetes detection and care,” said Kenneth Moritsugu, MD, MPH, chairman of the Diabetes Institute and former Acting Surgeon General. “But also, healthcare professionals are being bombarded with new information every day, and they’re extremely busy taking care of patients, so it’s very difficult for them to keep up to date with the latest in science and technology.”

It’s part of an international effort, said Moritsugu, who has type 1 diabetes. J&J opened a similar facility in Tokyo in October, and plans to open training centers in Beijing and Paris by the end of the year.

In the US, the Diabetes Institute will offer healthcare professionals two-day courses providing updates on the latest in diabetes science, standards of identification and care and best practices for better communicating with patients, as well as training in using web-based technologies to analyze blood glucose levels. They will also offer participants the chance to wear an insulin pump by J&J’s Animas, or to try out the firm’s one-touch glucometer. Moritsugu said they will not train participants on non-J&J products simply because they don’t enjoy the same easy access to them.    

The company will provide transportation and accommodations to participants.

In addition, J&J launched www.jjdi.us to support alumni. The site will feature message boards for alumni and content on emerging technologies in diabetes care.

“We see this as a home for the entire diabetes family, from professionals to patients to patients’ families and the society in which they are involved,” said Moritsugu. “We are really going to be connecting the dots to address this continually expanding epidemic.”