Discovery Health Documentary Spotlights Diabetes and Offers a CME Credit

Discovery Health premiered a new feature-length program last Sunday that documents how diabetes affects people worldwide. What makes the show even more interesting is that doctors can receive one continuing medical education credit just by watching it.

To receive the credit, physicians must register online and watch the program, and then take a short CME post-test and program evaluation. The show counts as one free American Medical Association credit, and physicians can print a CME certificate from the site after completing everything.

The program was the brainchild of pediatric endocrinologist Francine Kaufman, who traveled across the world gathering and sharing information about diabetes with physicians, patients, and thought leaders working and struggling with the disease.

"The original idea was to focus on the efforts to achieve a United Nations resolution to make November 14 world diabetes day," Lori Moore, Novo Nordisk's senior director of communication and public affairs told Pharm Exec. "And they were going to trace the yearlong effort to make the resolution." But as luck would have it, the UN adopted the resolution early in December 2006, making the original topic a moot point. So Discovery Health needed a focus to tie the documentary together.

Joining ForcesDiscovery Health approached Novo Nordisk with the idea of making a film covering the global pandemic of diabetes and looking at all of those affected through compelling and personal stories. Novo Nordisk gave the filmmakers a CME grant to fund the noncommercial endeavor.

"We talked to Discovery Health about the need to travel to as many diverse cultures as possible and look at people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and to look at problems as well as solutions," Moore said. "We wanted to make sure it was a well-rounded story that really brought to life the enormity of the problem."

Novo Nordisk put the filmmakers in touch with the World Diabetes Foundation, which helped open doors to find unique stories in remote parts of the world, including Australia, India, and Brazil. Filming took close to ten months, and actress Glenn Close did voice-over work.

"The three partners that came together to make this film possible had a higher goal to increase awareness of diabetes and to educate and motivate," Moore said. "We just wanted to make sure that our visions were aligned with the kind of story that we ultimately wanted to see available."

The show will air through November on Discovery Health and is available online at discoveryhealth.com.