GUARDIANS 
FOR HEALTH

GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH

[GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH - BI's commitment to YOU and GUARDIANS FOR HEALTHDr Juliane Meyerhoff, GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH Lead, Boehringer Ingelheim Dr Waheed JamalHead of Cardiometabolic Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim][SC-CRP-08002]

[Affiliation appears on screen: Dr Juliane Meyerhoff, GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH Lead, Boehringer Ingelheim][Dr Juliane] Hello, I am Juliane Meyerhoff, the Lead of the Guardians for Health Initiative at Boehringer Ingelheim, or BI in short.

It's my great pleasure to welcome you to this initiative. With me is Waheed Jamal, Head of Cardiometabolic Medicine at BI.

[Dr Waheed] Hi Juliane, and a warm welcome to the Guardians. [Affiliation appears on screen: Dr Waheed Jamal, Head of cardiometabolic medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim]

[Dr Juliane] With this short video, we would like to thank you on behalf of the entire Guardians for Health team at Boehringer Ingelheim for embarking on this rewarding journey.

We would also like to shed some light on BI’s role and our commitment to Guardians for Health. The Guardians for Health’s vision is to stop early mortality by reducing cardiovascular and kidney complications in people with type 2 diabetes.

Waheed, what does this vision mean for you personally?

[Dr Waheed] Well, Juliane, in clinical practice, I treated patients with advanced disease at the extreme end of the cardiovascular disease continuum. And at the time, there were very few treatment options for type 2 diabetes, and there was no hard evidence that they could prevent end organ damage.

In fact, there was a concern that newer treatments could actually cause adverse cardiovascular outcomes. So, the focus was treating raised blood glucose and doing that in a safe manner.

The evidence has now evolved significantly, and we now know that we can prevent early cardiovascular mortality and prevent progression of renal disease in patients with diabetes.

But patients are not being treated according to the evidence, and that’s where Guardians for Health comes in.

With Guardians for Health, we now have the opportunity to do so much more for people with type 2 diabetes, by helping to bring the latest evidence to life.

[Dr Juliane] It's great to hear your excitement. And I can assure you that for the Guardians for Health team, it is this vision that has been the biggest driver for us over recent months in preparing the launch of the initiative.

The ambition to stop early mortality and reduce cardiovascular and kidney complications in type 2 diabetes is a great motivator for us every day. And I feel implementation of the evidence is what is needed to bring type 2 diabetes care to the next level.

I'm proud to say and grateful, that we experience so much support from our senior management as well as our external experts. What do you think BI's role in the initiative should be?

[Dr Waheed] Well, we believe strongly in partnering for success. We cannot do this alone. And this especially applies to Guardians for Health, where strong partnerships are vital.

These include partnerships with motivated individuals like the many colleagues who have joined us for Guardians for Health and the global and national steering committees, medical societies, industry partners and academia.

BI’s role is to be the initiator and the coordinator. We want to bring people and ideas together and connect the dots.

We’re also contributing resources, including a Guardians for Health team with highly skilled software engineers who have been working on developing a digital tool to support guideline adherence. [Text appears on screen: Partnering for success•Healthcare professionals•Medical societies•Industry partners•Academia]

[Dr Juliane] I agree partnerships are the foundation of this initiative. I think it's important to mention that we see Guardians for Health as an inclusive initiative.

So, any stakeholders in healthcare who share the vision and mission are welcome to join as partners. In a few years from now, I hope we can truly say this is a multipartnership initiative.

Whilst we think big, we decided to start small and agile and grow over time. Therefore, I'm delighted that you, as the Guardians, have decided to be among the pioneers. Waheed, is there anything else that BI can contribute?

[Dr Waheed] Well, as a globally operating company, we have the power to make best practice visible internationally, and collaborate with multiple stakeholders.

I believe there are a great many initiatives out there to improve outcomes in type 2 diabetes. So, the problem is that so far, I’m not aware of any initiative that has gone global despite type 2 diabetes being a global health challenge.

[Dr Juliane] And this nicely reminds me of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for Health. One of its targets is to reduce mortality from non-communicable diseases by one third in the next decade.[Text appears on screen: By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable disease through prevention and treatment...]

This target helped inspire Guardians for Health.

[Waheed] And with this, Guardians for Health is fully in line with BI’s values. As a family-owned company, we plan in the long-term, and sustainability is a major priority. We are ultimately driven by the desire to serve mankind by improving human health.

[Dr Juliane] You mentioned our company values, actually why is BI taking on Guardians for Health? It is set up as a non-commercial initiative. So why should we invest in it?

[Dr Waheed] Well, BI is committed to this because it’s an important opportunity for us to learn how to tackle chronic diseases in a way that goes beyond just the delivery of the medicines that we develop.

It’s also an opportunity to learn how to implement knowledge and evidence in a way that works for patients.

And finally, it’s an opportunity for us to learn how to leverage digital health opportunities, something that is becoming increasingly critical to the optimal delivery of healthcare today. [Text appears on screen:•Tackle chronic disease in a way that is beyond the delivery of medicines•Implement knowledge and evidence in a way that works for patients•Leverage digital health opportunities]

[Dr Juliane] Actually, we are already building on learnings from another great initiative developed by BI, which is the Angels initiative in acute stroke care. Waheed, I know that for a long time you were asking whether we can take inspirations from Angels and apply this to diabetes. Can you tell us a bit more about Angels?

[Dr Waheed] Sure. The Angels Initiative seeks to reduce the burden of stroke care by building an innovative network of stroke-ready hospitals worldwide, to reduce treatment delays and provide patients with the optimal standard of acute care.

To date, more than 4,000 hospitals have signed up and millions of stroke patients have been treated according to the highest standards. These are truly impressive numbers.

The Angels Initiative was successfully developed and driven by BI together with multiple partners around the world. And I would love to see similar things happening in diabetes care.

Although management of type 2 diabetes care differs from what is needed for acute stroke, I’m sure we can translate key learnings to Guardians for Health.

Learnings such as how to build a community of engaged healthcare professionals, develop knowledge and standardised frameworks and tools, and encourage rigorous quality assurance. Key hallmarks of the Angels Initiative. [Text appears on screen:•Community of implementers•Tools•Quality assurance]

[Dr Juliane] And what makes you confident that we can be successful?

[Dr Waheed] Ultimately, it’s the colleagues around the world that have joined us for the Guardians for Health Initiative who will make it successful, by ensuring the latest evidence is consistently implemented into daily practice and in routine diabetes care.

It’s the energy and enthusiasm of these very colleagues which make me confident that all the ideas and hard work going into Guardians for Health will pay off for people living with type 2 diabetes worldwide.

And so, I would like to thank all of you for attending the Summit and for working towards something really meaningful; our vision to stop early mortality in people with type 2 diabetes by reducing cardiovascular and kidney complications.

[Dr Juliane] Yes, let's join forces and bring this vision to life. Thank you Waheed, for your perspective on Guardians for Health.

With this, we conclude the introduction of the initiative, and you are now ready for your first live workshop of the Guardians for Health Summit, with the objective to put these global ambitions into your national perspective. Thank you and best wishes for the upcoming weeks of the Summit.

[GUARDIANS FOR HEALTH][guardiansforhealth.ca]