This Quality Improvement Activity enables you to review the glycaemic management of your type 2 diabetes patients and identify those who may benefit from initiation or intensification of blood glucose lowering medicines.

Good glycaemic control has a clear benefit on microvascular outcomes and if started early enough, on long-term macrovascular outcomes of coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

This is a Measuring and Improving Outcomes (MIO) activity that meets RNZCGP CPD requirements.

Medicine affordability is one of the five drivers of medicine access equity.

Up to 40 per cent of people continue to pay prescription copayments even though they are entitled to an exemption.¹ No person or family should pay more than $100 per annum for subsidised medicines.

Read the HAH bulletin to find out more. 

Māori attitudes to healthcare today are deeply rooted in New Zealand history. In this article, Deborah Bassett-Clarke discusses some reasons why the current model of pharmacy practice does not always meet the needs of Māori and may actually cause health inequities. Understanding these factors is an important first step to improving outcomes for Māori.

Health inequities in the detection and management of diabetes and its associated health outcomes are significant concerns in New Zealand. The first step to addressing inequitable health outcomes is knowing that they exist.

Read the HAH bulletin to find out more. 

A new study from the University of Auckland examined ethnic variation in the quality use of medicines between Māori and non-Māori older adult populations. Simon Maude from New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa spoke to the study's lead author Joanna Hikaka and investigated the impact of this research. 

We are pleased to be providing educational content to the New Zealand Nurses Organisation for publication in Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand. Our first contribution, "How to change lives: Prescribing equity through better use of medicines", appears in the February issue of Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand and is part of a course endorsed by CNA(NZ) for 1.5 hours of professional development. 

To complete the course, click here to go to ELearning.

Inequities exist in all aspects of diabetes care. In this article, Alesha Smith outlines some examples, proposes some actions, and explains where the new medicines fit in. 

This activity has been endorsed by The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) and has been approved for up to 0.5 CME credits for the General Practice Educational Programme (GPEP) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) purposes.

If you are a GP practising in New Zealand and would like to use a data analytics tool that can help you assess your prescribing with respect to type-2 diabetes, and allow you to compare your prescribing behaviour to your peers, then sign up now. To sign up to EPiC, simply click here to begin the two-step sign up process. 

In this webinar, Dr Rinki Murphy discusses the issue of inequity in diabetes care. You can watch this webinar here or in ELearning. 

In this webinar, Sandy Bhawan and Dr Emily Gill discuss how to improve medicine access equity in primary care. You can watch this webinar here or in ELearning.