Transcript
LISI FINIASI: Apart from registering them as diabetics, the information includes their last eye check, the last foot assessment, if they have amputation. That data is captured. What medications they are on. One of the challenges we find is that we always run out of medication and that's because we estimate how many diabetics there are and how much they should be given to each medical facility. But now we have the numbers to say, this is the number of patients who are diabetic, or on specific tablets and what the dose is.
TIM GLASGOW: It's a nation-wide register which means you'll be gathering all the data from the outer islands as well?
LF: Yes, the lead up we're piloting in some sites to see what the challenges are. So one of the challenges would be having access to electricity and putting it online, who will put it online. I think one of the big picture [things] is it will capture just how many patients we have, is it's a bit more integrated than before - we were all working in isolation.
TG: Some of the information will be put through from the records you already have has that all be done?
LF: No. So most clinics have done it by manually on the paper form, but it just needs to be put into the electronic form- on the web, online. So that's where we'll need people to volunteer to sit into the clinics and help put it online.
TG: So why was the decisions made to start or create the register?
LF: Well we have seen how we have national cancer registers and TB national registers so they know how many patients they have and what medications are needed and how much. But for diabetes we don't actually know how many patients. The challenge is also when we ask how many have prosthetics, how many need prosthetics after amputation, we don't know what the number is. This came up because we were having this foot care project funded by World INC foundation and we worked on this project - a four year project that has been extended for until next year. We were not only looking at the prevention part, but the treatment part, but the post amputation part, what happens after to a patient after the amputation. And we tried to find all of the data, but all of these patients, they were lost to follow-up. These people had had amputations, but they hadn't had regular medications. If you have already had amputation your risk of another amputation with uncontrolled diabetes is quite high. So we really need to follow these people up. When you know data you can present and say, oh because of this you need this many prosthetics and how and medication you need. Then we can increase the budget when we are loking at diabetes.
