Developing quality structured education in diabetes
Providing award-winning training

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DESMOND – who we are and what we do!

DESMOND is a name that crops up frequently in the world of diabetes. Sometimes it’s associated with myths and misconceptions. So, to put the record straight, who are we? And what do we actually do?

What is DESMOND

DESMOND is the name of a ‘family’ of patient education programmes and related Educator training, which have been developed by a collaborative of NHS organisations, and which have a co-ordinating centre hosted by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

NHS organisation

So DESMOND is first and foremost an NHS organisation which supports other NHS organisations to deliver first class patient education to people with Type 2 diabetes, or who are at risk of diabetes. We are very proud of the way in which our team, originally a research initiative, has become well-established and successful in helping to improve the care which people with diabetes can expect to receive from our National Health Service.

Research Organisation

All DESMOND programmes begin life as research projects, so not surprisingly, DESMOND is also a research organisation, drawing on the expertise of many others to test and provide evidence of the effectiveness of the education programmes and training we develop. Our research is conducted in collaboration with colleagues in other institutions, academic as well as NHS. We can call on the most experienced, respected and skilled practitioners and academics in designing our programmes.

Training Organisation

Once research has been successfully completed and education programmes are ready to be implemented more widely, they become the responsibility of our National Programme.

This small but dedicated team have the task of organising training to enable healthcare professionals to deliver our DESMOND programmes to patients just as effectively as they are during research projects. This makes DESMOND a training organisation.

Award winning

We give as much attention to the way we design and carry out training as we do to our patient education. In fact, our attention to detail has been so admired, that in 2007, our Training Team won a prestigious national award, the 'Health Service Journal award for Skills Development'. We are unique in providing this level of professional development for Educators, and we are working continuously with experts in the field of healthcare professional development to improve assessment and accreditation processes still more.

Continuely Expanding

DESMOND is an expanding programme too. We have many new programmes currently in their research phase, which will be available widely in the next 2-3 years. You will find more news of these through our website. So visit us often, and be part of the changes we are making in the world of diabetes education!