We partner with leading nonprofit organizations and foundations to address unmet healthcare needs, and we promote the use of best practices and applied research when it comes to tackling healthcare's biggest challenges. We focus on improving healthcare access and strengthening the capacity of health systems to provide preventive care for all patients, especially the most vulnerable. Learn more about our approach to social investing, through some of our most innovative programs.
In the United States, community health centers and free clinics are on the front lines, every day, providing life-saving care to more than 23 million people in medically underserved areas. BD seeks to strengthen their capacity to provide primary and preventive care to uninsured and underinsured populations. Through the BD Helping Build Healthy Communities Program — implemented by Direct Relief and the National Association of Community Health Centers — BD has awarded more than $3.6 million in grants to 31 health centers that are implementing innovative, replicable approaches to disease management, while improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. BD has also donated 22 million insulin syringes and 3,200 pen needles, valued at $6.4 million, for distribution to 845 health centers, free and community clinics in 49 states and Puerto Rico. Through the Americares/BD Advancing Community Health Program, BD helps community clinics achieve recognition as patient-centered medical homes, by awarding competitive grants worth $100,000 each.
BD provides philanthropic support for diabetes prevention, care and treatment, globally. Through the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Program, BD has donated nearly 1.2 million insulin syringes to 20 countries, benefitting children who would otherwise need to reuse their syringes. Through Project Hope, BD is helping to strengthen the capacity of local health centers to care for patients with diabetes by supporting diabetes education and training for general practitioners in Hangzhou City, China. Training included workshops for 110 general practitioners and 30 nurses from 19 community health centers and 32 health stations.
BD is committed to addressing the growing global issue of healthcare-associated infections. As a strategic partner to APIC (the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology), BD sponsors the APIC Heroes in Implementation Research Scholar Award Program. The program provides career development opportunities for highly qualified clinicians who seek to improve patient outcomes by championing for the systemic adoption of infection prevention and control programs.
CMMB is an international NGO that is transforming the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable women and children, by tackling the deep-rooted causes of morbidity and mortality. Through its Children and Mothers Partnerships – or CHAMPS – CMMB is providing life-saving medical care for pregnant women and newborns, while fighting disease and poverty. With sponsorship funding from BD, the CHAMPS program is enlisting volunteer doctors and nurses to build healthcare capacity in Zambia, provide essential medicines and supplies, increase access to safe water and sanitation, and improve the nutrition of the area’s most vulnerable women and children.
In West Africa, BD supported the CDC Foundation, Direct Relief, Heart to Heart International and AmeriCares with donations and delivery of more than $1 million in cash and BD products, including safety-engineered devices, to protect healthcare workers fighting the Ebola virus outbreak. Working with the CDC Foundation, BD also worked to help secure additional contributions from the private sector to mobilize the worldwide effort to contain the Ebola epidemic.
Together with Direct Relief, BD developed a volunteer initiative to provide support to CerviCusco clinic in Cusco, Peru. The region is plagued by one of the world's highest incidence rates of HPV, leading to a rate of cervical cancer that’s estimated to be more than twice the rate in the rest of South America and more than 10 times the rate in the U.S. The mountainous region surrounding Cusco is very remote, making it difficult for indigenous women in the region to get access to proper and timely cervical cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. The CerviCusco clinic conducts extensive early detection outreach to indigenous communities near Cusco. Since 2012, BD has donated more than 24,000 BD SurePath™ Liquid-based Pap tests to this initiative, resulting in the removal of cervical cancers from over 230 women.