Previous Projects

• National Outcomes and Indicators for Diabetes Patient Education
• Australian Cochrane Diabetes Satellite
• National Survey of Undergraduate Teaching about Diabetes
• Preventing Type 2 Diabetes in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities in NSW

Development and Validation of an Australian Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire was selected as the best poster at the 2009 ADEA Conference.

This project established the first comprehensive and systematic national consensus position on outcomes and indicators for diabetes patient education in Australia and internationally.

Funded by the Australian Government under a grant administered by Diabetes Australia, the project was designed to address the lack of congruence within and between providers, patients, planners and policy makers about the ultimate purpose, overall goals and desired outcomes of patient education.

Achieving the consensus involved literature reviews, interviews with key opinion leaders, a national survey of service providers and focus groups with people with diabetes.

Culminating in a National Stakeholder Forum held in Parliament House, Canberra, to review and amend the draft outcomes and indicators, the project resulted in a report, Outcomes and Indicators for Diabetes Education - A National Consensus Position, which details the evidence-and-consensus based framework and national position for Australia on goals, outcomes and indicators for diabetes patient education and a set of agreed recommendations about their implementation.

This work represents a significant step towards improving the quality and consistency of patient education. It provides a sound basis for policy relating to diabetes education, a focus for health professional training, and a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of patient education. Launched in late 2007, the Outcomes and Indicators have received considerable international acclaim and are being used extensively in Australia and for quality of care and improvement purposes.

The Diabetes Unit hosted the Australian Cochrane Diabetes Satellite under a grant from the Department of Health and Ageing administered through the Monash University based Australasian Cochrane Centre and co-supervised by the Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders Cochrane Review Group in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The purpose of the Satellite was to undertake Cochrane Reviews, promote the use of the Cochrane library and disseminate reviews to Australian clinicians, consumers and policy makers.

The main output of this project was a Cochrane review of individual patient education for people with type 2 diabetes which was published in the Cochrane Library in 2009.

Funded under an Australian Diabetes Society-Servier grant titled ‘Get ’em while they’re young: How are we preparing undergraduates to deal with diabetes?’ this project explored the extent which undergraduate training may influence subsequent practice variations and deficiencies. The results of this exploratory survey suggested disparities in the consistency, coordination and transparency of diabetes training in medical, nursing, dietetics and pharmacy courses.

Letter to the Editor: How well are we preparing undergraduates to deal with diabetes? A copy can be accessed at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/120091634/PDFSTART

This project was commissioned by NSW Department of Health and published in 2007 to inform the development of policies and programs aimed at reducing risk factors for type 2 diabetes in CALD groups.

The methodological framework was built around the five research questions:

• Are there specific CALD groups in NSW with high prevalence of risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes, or with higher incidence of the disease?
• What are the factors which may contribute to higher levels of risk in specific CALD groups?
• What evidence exists, and what are its key features, for interventions which are likely to be effective in reducing risk factors for type 2 diabetes in specific CALD groups?
• What evidence exists, and what are its key features, for interventions which have been trialled in CALD groups, for reducing other risk factors for chronic disease, which may be applicable to reducing risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes?
• What evaluation methods would be applicable for evaluating the processes, impacts and outcomes of interventions for reducing risk factors for type 2 diabetes targeted to CALD communities?

The results of this project are being used by NSW Health to address deficiencies in the pool of knowledge about what works in diabetes prevention in CALD communities. Specifically, through the Sydney Diabetes Prevention Project, NSW Health has included a special focus on two of the high priority CALD groups identified by the report.

Report: Preventing Type 2 Diabetes in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities in NSW