We really need better access to health...
Our health system as it is, does
not serve our people very well.
How is that going to translate
over to the next generation to be
hopefully a diabetes-free generation?
First Nations indigenous communities in British Columbia, the
westernmost province, Canada, are often too remote to
receive the medical support they need.
Access to healthcare specialists can take days, and people
who are ill can be in hospitals long distances
away from their families for long periods.
So we do know that diabetes
is disproportionately represented in indigenous communities.
Often in remote communities, when someone is diagnosed
with diabetes, they don't have access to the
education they need or sometimes don't have somebody
to help answer their questions around certain types
of medications, including the benefits or side effects.
BI knew they had to help.
It all started in 2018 when Chief Isidore
Day, the Health Minister for the Assembly of
First Nations in Canada and founder of
Bimaadzwin and Boehringer Ingelheim Canada started talking.
These conversations led to an innovative
partnership. Led by indigenous communities
PATHWAYS is a collaboration between Bimaadzwin indigenous
health policy leaders and Boehringer Ingelheim, Canada.
One of the indigenous Peoples involved
with PATHWAYS is a the Nuu-chah-nulth community.
BI have the same goal as a Nuu-chah-nulth
to create a diabetes free generation by educating
communities on how to manage the disease and
creating new pathways through technology to enable access
to specialized care for type 2 diabetes.
They are making strides to achieve this goal.
At Boehringer Ingelheim, we wanted to make
a difference in outcomes for indigenous people.
Canada does not have a formal indigenous health
policy, and as a result, we work with
a team of indigenous health policy advisors to
develop the indigenous Health Policy Framework.
The purpose of the indigenous Health Policy
Framework is to provide a set of
tools that contribute to innovative collaborations between
partners that are interested in helping to
close the indigenous healthcare gap in Canada.
All of our partnerships with the
indigenous communities are pharmaceutical-agnostic.
They have to be focused on meeting the
healthcare needs as identified by the community.
We engaged the indigenous communities through Bimaadzwin and
through the indigenous Health Policy experts to better
understand what their needs were and how we
could support them to address the needs to
optimize healthcare services within the community.
We spent three years listening to indigenous leaders,
indigenous voices, informing, educating us, and so it
gives me an appreciation of what some of
the indigenous communities within British Columbia are facing.
And when that project came through from Nuu-chah-nulth, it really
made me happy that to see how PATHWAYS was able
to serve the needs of the community to identify as
severely lacking optimal access to health services.
There are 14 Nuu-chah-nulth nations and they span
300 km on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Our vision for diabetes support in all the
Nuu-chah-nulth Nations is offering every person living
with diabetes who would like it access to
an endocrinologist or diabetes specialty services.
The Nuu-chah-nulth project brings together the
technology and a dietitian who is within the
Nuu-chah-nulth community to optimize care for the patient.
I find that empowering community members with
the knowledge on how to adjust their
own insulin has made such a big
difference in their overall blood sugar management.
We've had stories of patients within the pilot sites
that have had their lives changed, turned around and
to see where they are now once again going
back to what they used to enjoy in life.
Paul is one of the patients the pilot helped.
I've been doing really good.
I used to have a hard time just walking, not even
half a block, but now I can walk for miles.
This is really why I'm passionate about this work and
this is why I get so much joy out of
people coming out the other side with their diabetes and
transforming their lives and feeling better and teaching the next
generation on how to do that.
But empowering people with that knowledge is important.
It takes time to do it the right way
PATHWAYS has been a very fulfilling journey.
It has instilled a purpose in what I do.
The impact it has had at Boehringer Ingelheim
is that it has raised the level of
understanding within senior leadership, not only in Canada,
but globally as well.
It has been a fantastic learning experience.
This is not a one-off story, BI
Canada continues to partner with the indigenous
communities to transform access to healthcare
in a sustainable way for future generations.