Researcher profiles:
- Dr Jeremy Krebs
- Dr Kirsten Coppell
- Dr Bryan Betty
- Dr Ben Gray
- Ms Lorna Bingham
- Mr Ken Whelan
Improving health outcomes for people with diabetes
Diabetes is a priority for the health sector. It is more common in Maori and Pacific people, who also have poorer outcomes. Health outcomes are better if diabetes is well controlled but many people with diabetes have inadequate control. As currently delivered, secondary care services are unable to meet the demand.
We developed a model of specialist clinics held in primary care that showed promise by:
- Increasing access to specialist input
- Upskilling the primary care team
This project will evaluate this model and determine whether it is a cost effective way of improving diabetes care.
Focus on Maori and Pacific population
We will evaluate diabetes management at a primary health service with high Maori and Pacific population before, and 12 months after, introducing a similar specialist clinic.
We will look at measures of diabetic care across the practice and have done a qualitative analysis of experiences of staff and patients with the intervention:
"Practices that serve these communities operate in a complex setting that needs to be given careful thought in relation to future funding and policy models. However, based on the engagement and outcomes they are achieving, it is well worth our attention."
Read our report in full:
Diabetes, Primary Care, & High Needs Communities: An integrated approach to diabetes care PDF 450MB
