Indicators for the Australian National Diabetes Strategy 2016–2020: data update

Goal 7 Update

Research to strengthen the evidence base for prevention, early detection, management and care of all forms of diabetes remains a priority for Australia.

• Between 2016 and 2019, the National Health and Medical Research Council provided nearly $220 million in grants for diabetes research, including $128 million in grants for type 2 diabetes research, $43 million in grants for type 1 diabetes research and $10 million in grants for gestational diabetes research.
• Since its commencement in 2015, the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) has provided a total of $37 million to 14 organisations for diabetes related research.
• As part of the MRFF investment, $25 million will be provided over five years from 2019–20 to 2024–25 to the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network to fund research into developing and improving new treatments, controls and practices for type 1 diabetes. The Australian Government is also providing $6 million funding over four years from 2019–20 to 2022–23 to support the administration of the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network.
• Up to $47 million of funding over four years from 2019–20 to 2022–23 for the 2020 Targeted Translation Research Accelerator Grant Opportunity to support the development of novel preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and products for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• The Australian Government is providing $932,000 over two years from 2019–20 to 2020–21 to update the 2012 Absolute Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment Guidelines to reflect current best practice evidence. Revision of these guidelines will ensure health professionals have the latest data to better detect cardiovascular disease and manage patients with the condition.
• The Australian Government will also provide $3.2 million funding over three years from 2019–20 to 2021–22 for the Second National Eye Health Survey, which will obtain current data on the prevalence of vision loss, blindness and eye disease in the Australian population.
• The Australian Government is providing $450,000 funding over three years from 2019–20 to 2021–22 to explore new models and messaging to effectively engage women with previous gestational diabetes in follow-up screening for type 2 diabetes.

The Australian Government is funding the following research projects for diabetes prevention among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• $3.87 million over three years from 2019–20 and 2021–22 for the Indigenous Youth Diabetes Models of Care project, which will develop, pilot, evaluate and implement culturally appropriate models of care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth with type 2 diabetes.
• $6 million over two years from 2019–20 and 2020–21 for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Diabetic Foot Complication Project, which aims to reduce diabetes foot-related complications and amputations for Indigenous people.

Since the publication of the Australian National Diabetes Strategy 2016-2020, Australia has made significant progress in data collection and improving data connectivity related to diabetes parameters.

• Increased uptake of My Health Record has improved connectivity between different providers of health care. As at March 2020, 91% of pharmacies, 91% of general practitioners and 94% of public hospital beds were registered with My Health Record and there were 22.7 million total My Health Records, representing an increase of 220,000 records since July 2019.