Srinagar, Nov 14: The Success with Individualised Insulin Management (SWIIM) program started at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, has come as a boon for the diabetic patients of Kashmir.
The first of its kind initiative called SWIIM Kashmir centres around a flexible insulin regime that lays emphasis on routine/daily structure apart from individualised dosing cards, diet charts, regular adjustment of insulin doses in the normal range.
The man behind the execution of this program at SKIMS is Dr Ovais Peerzada under the supervision of Prof Shariq Masoodi HOD, Department of Endocrinology at SKIMS.
Both Dr Peerzada and Dr Masoodi gave a detailed presentation on the program today at the SKIMS Auditorium on World Diabetes Day, which was attended by around a two dozen diabetic patients and their families.
Later, in conversation with The Rising Kashmir, Dr Peerzada spoke about the efforts taken to convince the stakeholders at the famous The John Hunter Children’s Hospital(JHCH) in Newcastle, Australia and implement the SWIIM Diabetes management program at SKIMS Kashmir.
“We tailor made it for Kashmir. There are a lot of components including 10 essential habits part of the of SWIIM program. The Insulin card helps patients to see how many exchanges of carbohydrate they have taken and manage the intake accordingly”, he said.
According to Dr Peerzada, who completed his Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship (Post-doctoral clinical Fellowship, from the John Hunter Hospital Newcastle, said testing and more testing is an important tool to deal with diabetes but for that ample resources are needed.
“More and more testing is needed…but that becomes unaffordable for the patients,” he said.
To deal with this, the SKIMS signed an memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Life for a child, Australia based organisation that has now been supplying free Glucometers, testing kits, insulin strips to the SKIMS through. The slogan of Life For a Child is “no child should die of diabetes”.
Through these coordinated efforts, the SWIIM Program has helped the SKIMS to bring down the average HbA1c from 10.3% (89mmol/mol, SD 2.04%) to 8.1%(65mmol/mol,SD2.29%) in 6 months.
According to the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) guidelines the below 7 sugar level has less risks and enables diabetic patients to live a better life.
The proportion of people with ISPAD recommended HbA1C target of < 7% increased from 15 % at baseline to 50% at 6 months in Kashmir, reads the data reviewed by Rising Kashmir.
Similarly, the proportion of people with HbA1C more than 10%decreased from 52% to 20%.
“The mean HBA1C level at SKIMS patients used to be 10 percent. Which means the rate of complications especially with kidney failure used to be high. So keeping the level around 7 makes a person diabetic person less prone to complications,” said Dr Peerzada.
According to him, this all would not have been possible without the support of Prof Bruce King, Discipline Lead of Paediatric Diabetes and Endocrinologist at John Hunter Children’s Hospital, Newcastle, Dr Carmel Smart, Lead paediatric Dietician John Hunter Children’s Hospitals, New Castle Australia, Dr Graham Oogle, General Manager Life for a child Programme.
