IGT Care Call project attracts an international crowd
Greater Manchester CLAHRC and Salford Diabetes Care Call played a leading role in this year’s international Telehealth and Telecare Conference held at the Kings fund, London. Linda Savas, Knowledge Transfer Associate at GM CLAHRC and Katherine Grady, Care Call Development Manager at Salford Diabetes Team, delivered a presentation on the results of the award winning Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) Care Call project. Their presentation, entitled ‘IGT Care Call: An innovative approach to providing lifestyle and behaviour change to prevent type 2 diabetes’ was presented on day two of the conference as part of the session ‘promoting self-management for people with long term conditions.’ The presentation focused on the results of the project and included both quantitative and qualitative information. The session was also live streamed over the internet for those unable to attend. It attracted around 1000 virtual attendees who participated by asking questions through Twitter. Linda said: “We were very pleased to see so much interest in the project. Results from the project, where seven GP practices in Salford participated, have been very encouraging; participants who completed the programme reported increased understanding of their blood results results and increased confidence in reducing their risks of developing type 2 diabetes." The 2012 International Telehealth and Telecare Congress is organised by The King's Fund in partnership with the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMC). This annual event brings together key speakers from around the world to showcase innovations and best practice in the deployment of Telehealth and Telecare services. IGT Care Call is a six month telephone based intervention for patients diagnosed with IGT. It provides lifestyle and education to promote behaviour change to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. The project, which was a collaboration between GM CLAHRC and NHS Salford’s Diabetes Team, won the 2011 QiC (Quality in Care Award) for best type 2 diabetes preventative initiative. Further roll-out of the project is due to commence in April 2012 and all GP practices in Salford will be invited to participate. Following patient feedback, the pathway will differ slightly from the original project to include a nine and 12 month follow-up service for patients. It will also be offered to both Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) and IGT patients and will therefore be re-named as the Impaired Glucose Regulation (IGR) project. GM CLAHRC is also working with GP practices to develop a pathway for coding IFG and IGR patients.
Date Published: 14/03/2012