Hunter New England Local Health District

Winner​
Health Minister Brad Hazzard, NSW Health Secretary Elizabeth Koff, Megan Paterson, Michelle Neylan, Anne McCrea, Sharlene Dauber, Helen Phelan, Ethan Dawber, Carmel Smart, Tobi Wilson (South Eastern Sydney LHD Chief Executive) in red Patricia Crock, Dr Teresa Anderson AM (Sydney LHD Chief Executive) Front row Don Anderson, Bruce King

 

The HNE region has the highest prevalence of Type 1 diabetes in childhood in Australia. Prior to 2005 the majority (>80%) of children attending the John Hunter Children’s Hospital Diabetes service failed to meet international targets for glycaemia, dramatically increasing the risk of early diabetic complications. This was consistent with outcomes reported for paediatric diabetes centres nationally and internationally. Our team sought to achieve target HbA1c for all paediatric patients.
 
We developed a ground-breaking diabetes management program (SWiiM). Data was prospectively collected from 2004 to measure the effectiveness of SWiiM.
 
Outcomes were published (1-3), with a key finding that 83% of young children achieved target glycaemia compared to 30% previously (4). Novel interventions have been incorporated into International diabetes guidelines (5-7) and adopted throughout NSW, nationally and internationally. We continually achieve the best glycaemic outcomes in Australasia with a mean HbA1c of 7.3% versus a national average of 8.3% (2018).
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Current as at: Thursday 29 August 2019
Contact page owner: NSW Ministry of Health