CDC Foundation and Lilly to Address Unsafe Injection Practices in U.S. Healthcare Settings
More than 150,000 patients have been notified of potential exposure to hepatitis and HIV due to unsafe injection practices in U.S. healthcare settings since 2001. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), medical injections are an overlooked source of infections and outbreaks. To better protect patients from this ongoing problem, the CDC Foundation’s partnership with Eli Lilly and Company will support and expand CDC’s Safe Injection Practices Coalition—a group of public health, medical and industry organizations collaborating to raise awareness among patients and health care providers about safe injection practices.
“The combined educational resources and subject matter expertise from CDC and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition are critical to expanding patients’ and health care providers’ knowledge of safe injection practices,” said Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. “We are grateful to CDC and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition for advancing this work and to Lilly for its partnership in this important coalition.”
The partnership will extend the reach of Safe Injection Practices Coalition’s One & Only Campaign, an injection safety awareness campaign that has produced and distributed educational and multimedia tools for health care providers and patients. Lilly’s partnership will support the expansion of the coalition’s activities, resources and tools for provider training and education, as well as patient empowerment. Funding will also support dissemination of safe injection messages using social media (follow us @InjectionSafety), YouTube, electronic continuing medical education, advertising and print materials for providers and patients.
“Findings from CDC-led research and outbreak investigations indicate that many health care providers are not following safe injection procedures,” said Joe Perz, Dr.P.H., M.A., epidemiologist and team leader in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC. “To protect patients, all health care providers should review CDC’s safe injection practice guidelines with their staff and colleagues.”
Through this three-year partnership with Lilly, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition will:
- Expand the One & Only Campaign to new audiences such as individual and group-owned physician practices;
- Educate health care providers through new and enhanced training and communication materials to address emerging issues;
- Improve the Safe Injection Practices Coalition website and social media platforms to share resources and toolkits with new audiences; and
- Engage new and existing Safe Injection Practices Coalition partners.
“Lilly is committed to helping health care providers help their patients, through life-changing medicines and improving understanding and management of disease,” said Alex Azar, president of Lilly USA. “We’re honored to support CDC and health professionals across the country in this important initiative to advance patient safety and public health.”
About the Safe Injection Practices Coalition
The Safe Injection Practices Coalition is a partnership of healthcare-related organizations, patient advocacy organizations, industry partners and other public health partners, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC Foundation is the convening partner of the coalition, formed to promote safe injection practices in all U.S. healthcare settings. The coalition has developed the One & Only Campaign—a public health education and awareness campaign—aimed at both health care providers and patients to advance and promote safe injection practices. For more information, visit www.oneandonlycampaign.org.
About Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. The company was founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today Lilly remains true to that mission in all its work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit www.lilly.com and http://newsroom.lilly.com/social-channels.