UCL and Novo Nordisk partner to take action against urban diabetes

UCL is partnering with Novo Nordisk and the Steno Diabetes Center - a world leading institution in diabetes care and prevention - to launch the Cities Changing Diabetes initiative, an ambitious new partnership programme to fight urban diabetes. The Cities Changing Diabetes programme will initially launch in Mexico City, with cities in North America, Europe and Asia to follow. The aim of the programme is to map where the problem of diabetes is most acute, share solutions and drive concrete action to fight it in cities around the world. To do so, the partners will work with a range of additional local partners including healthcare professionals, city authorities, urban planners, businesses, academics and community leaders, amongst others. Following the programme's initial discovery phase, UCL will work with Novo Nordisk and the Steno Diabetes Center and a range of policy makers and experts drawn from health authorities, the private sector and the volunteer sector to announce multi-year action plans detailing the commitments of its campaign in each of the cities that will be part of the programme. UCL's contribution will be led by Professor David Napier, Professor of Medical Anthropology in the UCL Department of Anthropology. He will be leading a team of research staff who will gather data on the ground about diabetes epidemiology in urban environments.