July 09, 2019
Courier delivery drives diabetes study
In the first trial outpatients from Counties Manukau DHB will be given an app that measures an element in their blood, allowing clinicians to monitor whether they are taking the medicine and if there is a risk of them developing diabetes-related complications.
Māori and Pacific are three times more likely to have diabetes than other New Zealanders, and about 8 percent of the country's diabetics are in the Counties Manukau DHB area.
Pharmacist Din Redzepagic from Zoom Pharmacy, whose company designed the app, says diabetics are notorious for nor always taking their medicine, as those living with the disease don't feel the high levels of blood sugar that puts them at risk.
Many of the patients from Manukau Superclinic are shift workers or have limited transport options open to them which can further impact on their ability to fill prescriptions, so the trial also includes delivery of the prescriptions by courier.
The Zoom trial is paired with another by Auckland University's Department of Medicine, which will randomly distribute two types of medicines to patients and then try to identify the impact of demographics such as ethnicity on how well they work.
Zoom lead pharmacist Dale Griffiths says the researchers hope the Zoom adherence service, digital monitoring and intervention by phone means patients will stick more closely to the medication schedule, providing a accurate data for researchers.
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