ACBRD staff and students were involved in 15 presentations across three days of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest diabetes congress
by Dr Amelia Lake, Jennifer Halliday and Jasmine Schipp
From 21st to 23rd August, many of the ACBRD team were in Sydney to contribute to the Australasian Diabetes Congress (ADC), sharing our research via oral presentations, posters, and a stand in the exhibition hall. The theme of our stand this year was “I wish my health professional understood…”, which highlighted research we presented on the final day of the conference (more on that below).
On Wednesday evening, we were involved in nine poster presentations during the Welcome Reception, covering a wide range of topics:
- User experiences with a smartphone diabetes coaching app for type 2 diabetes: My Diabetes Coach (Baptista et al)
- GP-OSMOTIC: An RCT to determine the effect of 3-monthly retrospective continuous glucose monitoring (rCGM) on 12-month HbA1c in adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care (Furler et al)
- ‘It’s exactly what we need’– The development and pilot testing of a clinician decision support (CDS) tool to guide glucose management discussions with, and treatment intensification among adults with type 2 diabetes in general practice (Kunstler et al)
- Positive reinforcement during primary care consultations is associated with greater physical activity in adults with type 2 diabetes (Geerling et al)
- Development, feasibility and efficacy of a web-based intervention to reduce psychological barriers to insulin therapy among adults with type 2 diabetes: study protocol (Holmes-Truscott et al)
- The National Gestational Diabetes Register improvement project – findings of a consumer and general practice review(Morrison et al)
- A qualitative investigation of the acceptability to adults with type 1 diabetes of five diabetes-specific quality of life measures. Findings of the YourSAY:QoL study (Schipp et al)
- Comparison of the acceptability and psychometric properties of scales assessing the impact of type 1 diabetes on quality of life: results of the YourSAY:QoL study (Speight et al)
- ‘It has kicked me into being proactive, not reactive’: a qualitative study of retrospective continuous glucose monitoring among adults living with type 2 diabetes in the GP-OSMOTIC trial (Lake et al)
This final poster was a finalist for the ADS Clinical Science Poster Award, and was presented by Dr Amelia Lake. She presented findings from a qualitative study of the experiences of retrospective Continuous Glucose Monitoring (r-CGM) among adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care. This was part of a randomised controlled trial: GP-OSMOTIC, led by A/Prof John Furler (University of Melbourne). This novel study generated much interest from healthcare professionals as our research found that intermittent use of r-CGM was trusted by, and helpful to, people with diabetes, who reported changing self-care behaviours and increased communication with their clinician. The ADS Clinical Science Poster Award involved strong competition from high quality contenders who each had five minutes to describe their research and answer questions. The experience was both stimulating and challenging.
On Thursday afternoon, Jennifer Halliday presented during the ADRF Research Showcase about a new diabetes distress e-training for health professionals. She described how the team, led by Dr Christel Hendrickx, and including Prof Jane Speight, Dr Virginia Hagger, Ann Morris and Prof Jackie Sturt, developed the training using an intervention mapping approach. She also gave a ‘sneak peek’ of the training, which includes a combination of slides and voiceovers, videos and activities (multiple choice, short answer based on case studies, and reflections) about how to identify and address diabetes distress. The team is currently evaluating the training, and recruitment is open to credentialed diabetes educators, until mid-September. Get involved here. If you missed the presentation, you can view it here (presentation begins ~38:30 mins).
At the ACBRD exhibition stand, we promoted an ACBRD research opportunity for Australian health professionals – a short survey about the barriers and enablers to providing psychological support to adults with diabetes. In the past, health professionals have described barriers including lack of resources and training, so we developed the Diabetes and Emotional Health handbook and toolkit, and above mentioned diabetes distress e-training in response. The current survey will assist us in understanding of other personal, workplace and systemic barriers to providing mental healthcare in Australian diabetes settings, and will offer direction for future work in this area. Following #19ADC, there has been a great response to the survey – many thanks to the 120 people who have already taken part. Most of these participants have been diabetes educators, so to diversify our sample, we also encourage health professionals from other health professional disciplines (e.g. endocrinologists and GPs) to get involved. The survey will be open until mid-September, so please take 10-15 minutes to take part, and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Get involved here.
On Friday morning, Eloise Litterbach gave a presentation in the ADS Clinical Orals Symposium: “I wish my health professionals understood that it’s not just all about your HbA1c!”: Qualitative responses from the Second Diabetes MILES-Australia (MILES-2) Study. Eloise and colleagues analysed 1,172 responses to a single open-ended question, ‘What do you wish your health professional understood about living with diabetes?’. One in three people reported positive experiences with their health professionals, highlighting that many had no wish for their health professionals to understand anything more about living with diabetes. However, there were unmet needs which were summarised in seven major themes: I wish my health professional understood ‘…my barriers to diabetes management’, ‘…that it’s easier said than done’, ‘…the full impact of diabetes’, ‘…that I want, need, deserve more’, ‘…that judgements, assumptions and negative perspective aren’t helpful’, ‘…more about diabetes’ and ‘…that I am the expert in my diabetes’. Overall, responses suggested that people with diabetes want to receive person-centred care from their health professionals. Eloise noted that they are not asking the impossible, as this is already recommended in national and international guidelines. This was a very well-attended session, with many people queuing outside unable to get in. So, if you missed this presentation, Eloise summarised her research in a brief video for Diabetes Australia.
Finally, just ahead of #19ADC, Prof Jane Speight was an invited speaker at the Roche Educator Day on the topic: “Diabetes sucks: its more than physical”. During the ADC, there were three additional oral presentations involving members of the ACBRD team:
- Lu J, Vogrin S, McAuley SA, Lee MH, Paldus B, Bach LA, Burt MG, Clarke PM, Cohen N, Colman PG, de Bock M, Hendrieckx C, Holmes-Walker DJ, Jenkins AJ, Kaye J, Keech AC, Kumareswaran J, MacIsaac RJ, McCallum RW, Sims C, Speight J, Stranks SN, Trawley S, Ward GM, Sundararajan V, Jones TW, O’Neal DN. Post-meal glycaemia in adults with type 1 diabetes using MDI vs CSII who have received carbohydrate-counting education
- McAuley SA, Vogrin S, Lee MH, Paldus B, Bach LA, Burt MG, Clarke PM, Cohen N, Colman PG, de Bock M, Hendrieckx C, Holmes-Walker DJ, Horsburgh JC, Jenkins AJ, Kaye J, Keech AC, Kumareswaran J, MacIsaac RJ, McCallum RW, Sims C, Speight J, Stranks SN, Trawley S, Ward GM, Sundararajan V, Jones TW, O’Neal DN. Glucose levels after type 1 diabetes education among adults using insulin pumps versus multiple daily injections
- Ross M, Taverna G, Lake A, Speight J, Hider K, Jones C. The role of health professionals in a consumer-empowered diabetes peer support model
You can read about our highlights from other presentations at #19ADC here.
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