Johnson & Johnson in March 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.

In addition, J&J launched www.jjdi.us to support alumni. The site will feature content on emerging technologies.

“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.”