Launch of the Healthy Georgia Diabetes & Obesity Project - Diabetes and School Care in Georgia

Launch of the Healthy Georgia Diabetes & Obesity Project

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, former Surgeon General David Satcher, and Center for Health Transformation Founder Newt Gingrich, joined with over 100 key business, government and medical community leaders at the Governor’s Mansion on Thursday, September 8th to launch the Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project. The Project is being coordinated by The Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration of private and public sector leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money.

Nancy Desmond, CEO of the Center for Health Transformation, began the program with an overview of the Center and the Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project. “Nowhere is the term collaboration of leaders more accurate or more energizing than here in Georgia and here in this room,” said Nancy Desmond. The Healthy Georgia Diabetes and Obesity Project is a statewide project to fight diabetes and obesity. The project is composed of four major components: public awareness and communications, quality of care of which Bridges to Excellence is a cornerstone, minority health disparities, and improving the health of Georgia’s children.

"The diabetes crisis is having a tragic impact on the lives of Americans, particularly among minorities, who are at increased risk for diabetes and its complications, including blindness, amputation and early death,” said Speaker Newt Gingrich. “The impressive list of business, medical and government leaders in Georgia who have joined with us to address this devastating and costly epidemic is unparalleled. I am confident that this unique collaboration of leaders will have a dramatic impact on the lives and health of the people in Georgia and will serve as a model of excellence for the rest of the country."

As part of the project, the Center is working with employers, health plans and physicians in Georgia to launch the nation’s largest Bridges to Excellence program, designed to improve the quality of diabetes care by providing financial incentives to physicians and patients who engage in proven practices that improve their health.

“The Center for Health Transformation serves as a catalyst for the best thinking and a clearinghouse for the best ideas to transform our healthcare system,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “Bridges to Excellence is an example of these transformative principles in practice. Encouraging healthier living while generating savings at the same time is good health care policy.”

The Center’s Georgia project also includes a special focus on minority populations, who are disproportionately impacted by diabetes. Morehouse School of Medicine is working with the Center on that project, and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, interim president of Morehouse, also spoke at the event on the topic of health disparities. Dr. Elizabeth Ofili, Professor of Medicine, is leading the minority health component of the project with the Center for Health Transformation.

In addition to Governor Perdue and Speaker Gingrich, Dr. Satcher, and Nancy Desmond, speakers at the breakfast included Dick Anderson, BellSouth vice chairman; Charlie Harman, Georgia Blue Cross Blue Shield senior vice president of public affairs; Dale Whitney, UPS Health and Welfare Manager; and Laura Linn, Director of the Georgia Project, the Center for Health Transformation. Dr. Julie Gerberding, Laura Linn director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and CEOs of many of Georgia’s largest employers and health plans also attended the breakfast.

Dick Anderson
Charlie Harman
Dale Whitney