A Medical Device Daily

Sanofi (Paris) has awarded a $500,000 grant to the National Council on Aging (NCOA) to support its efforts to improve the health and independence of millions of older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

Chronic diseases account for 75% of our nation's healthcare costs, with nearly half of all older adults living with one or more chronic health conditions, and two-thirds having two or more.

The Sanofi grant will support two major NCOA initiatives. The first is NCOA's Self-Management Alliance (SMA)—a “collective impact“ initiative that brings together businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to work toward the common goal of making self- management an integral part of healthcare in the U.S. by 2020.

“The goal of the SMA is to assure that individuals with chronic conditions have the education and support they need to manage their health and achieve the best possible quality of life,“ said Richard Birkel, senior vp of healthy aging at NCOA.“This grant helps us develop an evaluation framework to best measure our progress toward this goal and to align the individual efforts of multiple partners to assure accountability in our joint efforts.“

In addition, the grant will help NCOA expand its online support for adults with diabetes by increasing understanding of how to encourage and empower people with diabetes to take action toward better self-management.