Diabetes treatment leap needs government support

Diabetes researchers are calling on the Federal Government to subsidise access to life-saving technology to manage diabetes, with new research showing dramatic improvements in patients’ outcomes from using the devices.

The highly effective automated insulin delivery (AID) systems are currently only available to those with private health insurance in Australia but the first real-world evaluation of their effectiveness provides compelling evidence for governments to subsidise the technology.

The research was conducted across hospitals in Townsville, Mackay, and Logan in Queensland.

James Cook University Associate Professor Dr Harshal Deshmukh said the Federal Government should follow international models like the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which provides this technology free of charge to all Type 1 diabetes patients.

“Right now in Australia this technology is extremely expensive and is only available to people who have some sort of health insurance, so unfortunately a lot of people are actually missing out,” Dr Deshmukh, who is Staff Specialist Endocrinologist at the Mackay Base Hospital, said.

“It should be more widely available to people with Type 1 diabetes and it needs action because the longer you can’t control your diabetes, the more chances that you are going to end up having complications.

“We should follow what most of the modern economies are doing, like in the UK and Europe, where it is available almost free of cost to people.

“They have done the calculations and the economic analyses and found that it is beneficial in the long term so I think the powers that be in Australia need to make it more widely available and accessible.”

AID systems automate insulin delivery by using a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump, with an algorithm that adjusts insulin based on real-time glucose (sugar) readings.

A/Prof Deshmukh said the research shows the AID technology doesn’t just work in clinical trials, but also in real life, with the 158 people in the study improving their time in a target glucose range from 53% to 70%.

Their time in hyperglycaemia (abnormally high glucose levels) also declined almost 10%, with the findings supporting the real-world effectiveness of AID systems and highlighting their potential to bridge care gaps across diverse settings.

Dr Vasant Shenoy, Staff Specialist Endocrinologist at the Townsville University Hospital and a co-author on the paper said the study shows similar results in both regional and metropolitan Australia, which is reassuring.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a federal government program in Australia that subsidises the cost of prescription medicines and A/Prof Deshmukh is hoping they take notice of these results.

“In Australia, we have subsidised the sensor so currently everyone with Type 1 diabetes gets those sensors for nominal cost, but they don't get the pump,” he said.

“Our research is adding evidence from the real world that there needs to be efforts to subsidise this technology for all Australian people.”

Contacts
Media enquiries:  rohan.oneil@jcu.edu.au