The impact of point of care testing on diabetes services along Victoria's Mallee Track: results of a community-based diabetes risk assessment and management program.

Introduction: In the State of Victoria in Australia, diabetes is considered one of the top 10 health problems for people living in the rural Mallee Track region (which is centred on the town of Ouyen and extends west to the border with South Australia). A project entitled 'Diabetes Management Along the Mallee Track' was conducted through a Rural Chronic Disease Initiative (RCDI) program grant from the Australian Government's Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra, with the aim of improving the delivery of diabetes services in this region. The project's aims were achieved through the implementation of a community risk assessment program and the establishment of an integrated, multidisciplinary 'one-stop' service for the management of people with diabetes.

The success of men's health nights and health sessions.

Men's health nights and men's health sessions have proven to be remarkably successful in rural and some suburban regions of Victoria. In the rural regions, enough interest has been generated to run follow-up health sessions on topics selected at the initial nights. Approximately 2000 men attended these events and 575 filled in questionnaires giving information such as age, occupation, health concerns and perceptions of health professionals.

[Endosonographic demonstration of extrapancreatic and extraintestinal gastrinoma].

History And Clinical Findings: No cause had been found for chronic diarrhoea in a 57-year-old man. Up to 15 watery stools daily had been without relation to food intake and without blood admixture. But muscular cramps had developed, especially in the legs.

[Miliary tuberculosis and silicosis with predominantly cerebral symptoms].

History And Clinical Findings: About 10 weeks before admission to hospital a 73-year-old woman developed a fever of up to 40 degrees C for three days. She then had subfebrile temperature for several weeks with some rises to 39 degrees C. She was known to have type II a diabetes mellitus and pulmonary silicosis, having worked in a porcelain and ceramic factory for many years.

Ex-hospital clients evaluate their aftercare experiences.

Seventy-two previously hospitalized clients of an inner-city community clinic, assigned to three treatment groups - medication-only, medication plus individual therapy, and medication plus therapy plus group experiences - evaluated their respective aftercare programs by responding to five questions. As compared with the others, medication-only clients were less inclined to see either the clinic or the medication as preventing rehospitalization, were alone in reporting that the clinic was responsible for preventing rehospitalization to the extent that the medication was effective, and responded to the question of rehospitalization by emphasizing worsening symptoms. Others emphasized therapy failure.