Indigenous Cardiac Outreach Program (ICOP) is an intensive culturally sensitive initiative to bridge the gap with the capacity to address chronic diseases including diabetes. We report a snapshot study into diabetes profiles of our ICOP cohort after nearly ten years of service.
Diabetes control in rural and remote communities in Queensland: A snapshot look into Indigenous Cardiac Outreach program cohort
Initiative Type
Service Improvement
Status
Deliver
Added
Last updated
Summary
Key dates
Mar 2022
Mar 2022
Implementation sites
Statewide rural health facilities
Partnerships
Indigenous Cardiac Outreach Program
Aim
ICOP is an innovative multidisciplinary community-driven and culturally sensitive tertiary specialist program with the aim to ‘close the gap’ of cardiac care in remote and rural Indigenous communities
Benefits
We showed that in rheumatic heart disease, even though much work was done, there is still much to do to address the gap. Whereas, in lipid profiles, lipid profiles of the patients with established atherosclerotic disease in our cohort were comparable with the ones in developed countries (57 per cent achieved target LDL of less than 1.8 mmol/L). Diabetes control in our cohort was significantly better than previously demonstrated in rural and remote Indigenous communities.
Background
Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases which disproportionately affects remote and rural communities especially Australian Indigenous communities.
Solutions Implemented
Central to the team is the Indigenous Team Leader who coordinates the delivery of service. Standard tertiary cardiology care is further complemented with its intrinsic capacity to address the burden of chronic diseases by strategic positioning of a dedicated general medicine advanced trainee and a chronic disease nurse practitioner within the team.
Evaluation and Results
Several evaluations were undertaken to define the progress of ICOP in addressing the gap of care, including an audit in rheumatic heart disease in our program. I presented the result of the project as part of oral presentation at Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Meeting. There was another audit investigating the lipid profiles of ICOP cohort, in which we presented at 3rd World Congress of Lipidology as part of oral presentation. In addition, we have investigated diabetes control in our cohort, as detailed in our abstract submission.
Lessons Learnt
An intensive yet culturally sensitive program can provide a strong platform to bridge the gap in Indigenous Cardiovascular Health.
