A barbecue on Yorta Yorta Country: thanking participants of the Flash Glucose Monitoring Pilot Study

The FlashGM study team  from the Department of Medicine came together with the Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative to thank all who contributed to the FlashGM study. Throughout the pandemic and recent flooding events, 40 Aboriginal community members with type 2 diabetes trialled flash glucose monitoring – a wearable diabetes sensor – for six months to optimise their diabetes management.

Study participants standing outside in a grassy park with scattered large gum trees. About 15 participants are pictured. FlashGM pilot study participants.

Participants reflected on how the technology enabled them to better manage their care:

“Sensors allow me to understand diabetes because they’re pictorial…we are pictorial people,” one participant said.

“Providing sensors gives us the power we need for our health,” said another.

The nationwide NHMRC-funded FlashGM Study is run across 17 study sites, recruiting 350 Indigenous people with type 2 diabetes.

The FlashGM study team; Mariam Hachem, Ray Kelly, Dr Audrey Eer, Professor Elif Ekinci, Belinda Moore and Tracey Hearn.

The FlashGM study team; Mariam Hachem, Ray Kelly, Dr Audrey Eer, Professor Elif Ekinci, Belinda Moore and Tracey Hearn.