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MyLifeMatters

The My Life Matters medication access campaign has travelled the country and generated plenty of discussion, headlines and coverage.  It's never been more important for the voices of patients and supporters to be heard to make sure the decisions made by the medication agency Pharmac reflect the sort of country we want to live in.  If you haven't had a look at the campaign information, go here https://www.mylifematters.org.nz/.  More importantly, sign up to attend the final Roadsho...

Workplace wellness... throwback to 2005

Calling all who remember the Auckland Special K Women's Triathlon!   It was 2004, and someone in the team (I won't mention names) said "lets do a triathlon as a workplace".  It doesn't sound much looking through the lens of today, particularly given every summer now there are entry level events all over the country, but back then, this was a new thing. And the idea that you could do a supported women only event which had no barriers to age, size, ability, fitness...the point was g...

CGM - Kate gets to try out what is being recommended for her patients with Type 1 diabetes

On our Facebook page we've posted links to a website which is advocating on behalf of people with Type 1 Diabetes to get better and more equitable access to Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) technology.   https://www.nomorefear.org.nz/  It's an interesting and thought provoking read, and if you aren't familiar with the topic, will help with understanding of just how important and life changing (and life saving!) these devices can be.  There's a link on the site for a petiti...

MyLifeMatters - Medication funding in New Zealand

Photo: Jo Currie Photography...

Cassie's trip to the American Society for Nutrition Conference

I travelled from Auckland on a cold winter morning to summer in Canada. Firstly flying to Toronto and then by car in the early hours to my final destination of St Catharine's. St Catharine's is a city about 20 mins from Niagara Falls and is home to Brock University.  My host at Brock, Professor Wendy Ward, is in the Kinesiology Department. She was incredibly welcoming and generous with sharing her time and knowledge. Wendy’s research centres around nutrition and its impact on both bone an...

New DCSS Paper - Clinical Epidemiology

Excited to announce another paper published by Professor David Simmons and his team using the DCSS Audit data gathered by Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa over more than 20 years in Primary care in Auckland.      This paper is called "Adverse Clinical Outcomes Attributable to Socioeconomic and Ethnic Disparities Among People with Type 2 Diabetes in New Zealand Between 1994-2018: A Multiple Linked Cohort Study"    Great work from the team.      Pubmed Link...

NZSSD Conference 2023

As always, a trip to the NZSSD (New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes) conference in May is a high point of our year.  This year we were privileged to send three of our team to the Wellington event, Kate Smallman, Kanchana Perera and Karen Pickering.  Thank you to Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa and NZSSD for funding towards this.   The NZSSD conference is always an excellent opportunity to catch up with the latest of what has been happening around New Zealand and overse...

Anzac Weekend

The Otara office will be closed Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th April.   We wish everyone a safe and special Anzac weekend....

What a year it's been

So we are at last nearing the end of 2022 and what a year it's been.    At Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa we've had so much happen, and I think we can all agree that this year on top of the last couple have brought real challenges.    How far we've come though!   We couldn't have achieved a fraction of what we have without amazing people.  On behalf of our Board and team, we'd like to say a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to all of the people we've worked with or al...

Trusted Websites

Diabetes New ZealandThe go-to site for people with diabetes in New Zealand Diabetes AucklandThe Auckland branch of Diabetes New Zealand The Heart FoundationNew Zealand Heart Foundation provides many resources and programmes to assist in the knowledge and prevention of heart disease New Zealand Society for the Study of DiabetesNew Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes,  the professional body for clinicians working in the field of Diabetes care.    Auckland Regional Public Healt...

Important Change to Diabetes Medications

Call your doctor right now to see if you are eligible. If you are eligible, these new medications willreduce your risk of needing insulin[1], andreduce your risk of dying from heart attack or kidney failure[2]....

Advocacy for New Medications for Type 2 Diabetes!

The first significant change to the Type 2 Treatment landscape in years was a long time in the coming.  Jardiance (Empagliflozin) and Trulicity (Dulaglutide) were approved by Pharmac and prescription is now underway in the community.  If you have type 2 diabetes, or know someone who has it, see here for what you need to know to ask your Health Care Provider whether changing will be of benefit....

DCSS Quality Audit

The Diabetes Care Support Service (DCSS) audit provided support to GP Practices across Auckland since the early 1990's, helping primary care providers to improve the care delivered to patients with diabetes, or at risk of diabetes. As of June 2018 Counties Manukau Health reluctantly ceased funding the service.  Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa closed the DCSS Audit and commissioned Professor David Simmons and his team to analyse the data. Three successful presentations of findings at the S...

Countdown MasterClass

This pilot programme had funding from Counties Manukau Health and Countdown and was designed by Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa for delivery into selected South Auckland secondary schools.  Hosted by celebrity chef Brett MacGregor (winner NZ MasterChef 2010) who designed a range of healthy recipes suitable for the audience of teens in the South Auckland setting, it was well received by students and teachers alike because of it's hands on and down to earth approach.  For this programme a m...