Flash glucose monitors for Indigenous Australians

From left to right: Associate Professor Elif Ekinci, Mariam Hachem, Daniel Duke, Associate Professor Luke Burchill, Tracey Hearn, Donna Rumbiolo and Sharon Atkinson-Briggs.

The FlashGM Study leadership team – tasked with establishing a national Indigenous multi-centre trial amid the challenges of last year – has finally been able to catch up in person at a full-day planning meeting at the Repatriation Hospital in Heidelberg, followed by an evening meal together.

Joining the Melbourne-based team members were Indigenous Research Assistant Tracey Hearn and Clinical Trials Coordinator Donna Rumbiolo who made the trip down from Rumbalara Aboriginal Corporation on Yorta Yorta country near Shepparton. Sharon Atkinson-Briggs, inaugural Post-doctoral Indigenous Fellow from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, took a quick break from putting the finishing touches to her PhD to join the team.

Flash Glucose Monitors (FlashGM) are easy-to-use new devices worn on the arm that provide real-time blood glucose levels to guide diabetes treatment. The FlashGm Study team will assess if these monitors help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to gain better understanding and management of their blood glucose to avoid complications like kidney failure, heart attacks and blindness. Currently, monitoring blood sugar (glucose) levels through finger pricks is painful and doesn’t provide enough information – especially for people with diabetes using injectable medication. The team hopes that their research will improve diabetes care and health-service delivery for Indigenous and other high-risk Australians.

To find out more about the study, please visit our website or contact Trial Manager Mariam Hachem.