New NPS MedicineWise program aims to help health professionals improve diabetes management

Jun 2 2016

A new educational program aims to help health professionals keep up to date with the latest evidence on second and third line medicines for lowering blood glucose.

The latest NPS MedicineWise program—‘Type 2 diabetes: what’s next after metformin?’—will encourage GPs, pharmacists, practice nurses and diabetes educators to an individualised approach to diabetes management, balancing patient with medicine factors when choosing between the wide range of available glucose-lowering medicines.

NPS MedicineWise medical adviser Dr Jeannie Yoo says that medicine selection for treatment of type 2 diabetes is rapidly changing with increasing numbers of new medicines being introduced.

“With over one million Australians living with type 2 diabetes, and the number of people undiagnosed with type 2 diabetes also on the rise, it’s critical for health professionals to stay up to date with current approaches to managing this condition,” says Dr Yoo.

The first resource for the new educational campaign, a new edition of Medicinewise News on ‘Type 2 diabetes: when metformin is not enough’, is being distributed in print to more than 90,000 health professionals this week. It provides an update on current medicine options for particularly when considering add-on oral glucose-lowering medicines to metformin. It also discusses how to individualise therapy according to medicine and patient characteristics.

“While we are specifically hoping to improve use of second and third line therapies, strategies for improving adherence to the typical first line therapy metformin is another important focus for our new educational program,” says Dr Yoo.

“Despite high prescribing rates from GPs in line with guidelines, we know there are high levels of non adherence to metformin and would like to encourage health professionals to consider not just medicine but individual patient factors to try to improve adherence.

“Ultimately we hope that through health professionals being better informed about medicine choices, we can help people with type 2 diabetes achieve improved glycaemic control, reduce associated long term complications and minimise medicine related adverse effects.”

The NPS MedicineWise type 2 diabetes educational program will also include free educational visits and CPD activities including an interactive online case study for all types of health professionals, as well as an updated online knowledge hub for both health professionals and consumers.