According to a health watchdog, the majority of English NHS trusts are not doing enough to help people with diabetes manage their condition at home.
The warning, issued by the Health Commission, warned that while most PCTs were offering basic diabetes care, for example yearly checkups, 130 of over 150 did not provide adequate home support.
Offering people services to reduce comorbidities, for example CHD, such as weight management plans or physical activity regimes are viewed as crucial, and could save the struggling NHS millions of pounds every year.
Diabetes care was responsible for 5% of NHS expenditure in 2002, and the Health Commission suggested that this figure might now have increased to 10% based on estimates from 2006.
The Head of Healthcare Policy at Diabetes UK, Bridget Turner, expressed her disappointment at these findings: ‘These results show that the NHS is still failing to provide the high quality care that people with diabetes need to achieve good diabetes management and stay healthy’.
The commission said that PCTs in England had to do better in supporting people in managing their condition. However, their Chief Executive, Anna Walker, was quick to point out that those PCTs who were providing the care people need should be praised: ‘This is essential to the wellbeing of people with diabetes… All services that provide care to people with diabetes need to look to these services and follow their example of care’.
BBC News, 17 July 2007
Car bodywork holds key to new insulin injecting technology
Insulin injections and vehicles would not normally go together well, at least until now.
Professor Goran Stemme of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has developed a skin patch for dispensing insulin that may bring an end to the use of bulky pumps and hypodermic needles.
The underside of the patch is covered with microneedles – tiny hollow spikes – that penetrate just below the epidermis to deliver their contents, for example insulin, just below the skin without stimulating the nerves.
In previous years, the team headed by Professor Stemme came up with a way of micromachining these tiny needles.
Their initial research suggested that the best design would have a cruciform cross section, with delivery of the drug from the sides of the tip. However, they soon found that this cross section created too big a needle and back to the drawing board they went.
Drawing on the experiences of other researchers who had also had problems with skin penetration, Dr Stemme’s team found that a circular design worked better.
The next problem was now to slowly drive the insulin into the recipient, and this is where car bodywork comes in.
Expandable microspheres are used in plastic fillers for repairing car bodywork. Stemme and his team mixed these with a rubbery silicone, which, when heated would expand and drive the insulin through the needles.
At present the team are trying to find cheaper materials to make the disposable patches and once this occurs clinical trials will begin.
Engineering & Technology, June 2007
Attempts to achieve remission, or at least a substantial improvement in glycaemic control, should be the initial focus at type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
9 May 2024