To the Editor: We read Scott and Harris’s1 article with great interest and agree that new funding models for diabetes care must be carefully designed to ensure that interventions are effective. For this reason, the Diabetes Care Project2 (formerly the Coordinated Care for Diabetes Pilot) developed pilot interventions following reviews of international trials and extensive consultation with leading experts, including the Diabetes Advisory Group (of which the Australian Medical Association, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Diabetes Australia are members) and the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. A broad cross-section of Australians with diabetes, general practitioners, practice nurses, diabetes specialists and allied health professionals were also involved.
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- 1. Scott A, Harris MF. Designing payments for GPs to improve the quality of diabetes care. Med J Aust 2012; 196: 24-26. <MJA full text>
- 2. Diabetes Care Project [website]. https://www.dcp.org.au (accessed May 2012).
Jonathan Shaw and Paul Zimmet received a fee from McKinsey and Company for help in designing the care program being piloted in the Diabetes Care Project. Paul Zimmet also received support from McKinsey and Company to travel to Canberra to attend a Diabetes Advisory Group meeting for the project. McKinsey and Company won the tender from the Department of Health and Ageing to design and implement the Coordinated Care for Diabetes Pilot on behalf of the federal government.