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The Northern Territory (NT) and Far North Queensland (FNQ) have a high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women birthing who experience hyperglycaemia in pregnancy. A multi-component health systems intervention to improve antenatal and postpartum care in these regions for women with hyperglycaemia in pregnancy was implemented between 2016 and 2019. We explored health professional perspectives on the impact of the intervention on healthcare. The RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) underpinned this mixed-methods evaluation. Clinicians were surveyed before ( n = 183) and following ( n = 137) implementation. The constructs explored included usual practice and satisfaction with care pathways and communication between services. Clinicians, policymakers and the implementation team were interviewed ( n = 36), exploring the impact of the health systems intervention on practice and systems of care. Survey and interview participants reported improvements in clinical practice and systems of care. Self-reported glucose screening practices improved, including the use of recommended tests (72.0% using recommended first-trimester screening test at baseline, 94.8% post-intervention, p < 0.001) and the timing of postpartum diabetes screening (28.3% screening at appropriate interval after gestational diabetes at baseline, 66.7% post-intervention, p < 0.001). Health professionals reported multiple improvements to care for women with hyperglycaemia in pregnancy following the health systems intervention.

Background: Many women with hyperglycaemia in pregnancy do not receive care during and after pregnancy according to standards recommended in international guidelines. The burden of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy falls disproportionately upon Indigenous peoples worldwide, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia. The remote and regional Australian context poses additional barriers to delivering healthcare, including high staff turnover and a socially disadvantaged population with a high prevalence of diabetes., Methods: A complex health systems intervention to improve care for women during and after a pregnancy complicated by hyperglycaemia will be implemented in remote and regional Australia (the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland). The Theoretical Domains Framework was used during formative work with stakeholders to identify intervention components: (1) increasing workforce capacity, skills and knowledge and improving health literacy of health professionals and women; (2) improving access to healthcare through culturally and clinically appropriate pathways; (3) improving information management and communication; (4) enhancing policies and guidelines; (5) embedding use of a clinical register as a quality improvement tool. The intervention will be evaluated utilising the RE-AIM framework at two timepoints: firstly, a qualitative interim evaluation involving interviews with stakeholders (health professionals, champions and project implementers); and subsequently a mixed-methods final evaluation of outcomes and processes: interviews with stakeholders; survey of health professionals; an audit of electronic health records and clinical register; and a review of operational documents. Outcome measures include changes between pre- and post-intervention in: proportion of high risk women receiving recommended glucose screening in early pregnancy; diabetes-related birth outcomes; proportion of women receiving recommended postpartum care including glucose testing; health practitioner confidence in providing care, knowledge and use of relevant guidelines and referral pathways, and perception of care coordination and communication systems; changes to health systems including referral pathways and clinical guidelines., Discussion: This study will provide insights into the impact of health systems changes in improving care for women with hyperglycaemia during and after pregnancy in a challenging setting. It will also provide detailed information on process measures in the implementation of such health system changes.

Introduction: Like Indigenous populations in other countries, an epidemic of chronic disease has swept across Australia's Indigenous communities in the past decade. The Northern Territory and Queensland health departments initiated preventable chronic disease strategies in 1999 and 2001, respectively. Yet finding innovative ways to translate this to the health workforce was challenging. Through support from the Australian Government, three universities, two health departments and two Indigenous organisations worked in partnership to improve workforce capacity in remote and rural communities through innovative education., Methods: The methods included: (i) a training needs analysis consisting of 76 semi-structured interviews with key informants, and 35 surveys of remote staff; (ii) a literature and resource review; (iii) the development of a curriculum framework using: the existing competencies and standards across the health disciplines; the identified workforce needs; and what the workforce can impact upon; (iv) a multidisciplinary workshop with 35 educators across northern Australia that resulted in the basis for agreement of the final curriculum content and framework; (v) the development of a chronic disease self-assessment tool that was piloted with remote health staff; (vi) an assisted integration process for key stakeholders. An evaluation framework was also developed, as a separate project, in conjunction with the project partners during this time., Results: This project identified that a paradigm shift is required in the way in which we educate the entire health workforce to deal effectively with the impact of chronic disease across remote, rural and Indigenous populations. In particular a need was found to educate the educators in the chronic care model and in using a population health approach. The training needs analysis identified very little difference between the education and training needs across the rural and remote health disciplines; it was perceived that they managed chronic disease fairly well yet found prevention and early detection to be at the 'hard end'. The main barriers identified were the demands of acute care over chronic disease management, compounded by high workforce turnover in remote areas. The curriculum framework, in particular the domains of remote practice, is being used by several Australian universities, health departments and non-government organisations in adapting their existing or new education programs. The self-assessment tool was based on the curriculum outcomes and was piloted in 2005 and found to be very useful for pre- and post-training purposes and as a discussion starter for all disciplines and groups., Conclusions: A practical curriculum framework now exists to integrate a population health approach for the prevention and early detection of chronic disease when educating the primary healthcare workforce. It is relevant to all health disciplines and is flexible in that it can be adapted, or adopted, depending on the educational needs of the disciplinary group. It is being imbedded into numerous undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional development programs in Australia. It includes: the core learning outcomes expected of any workforce, resources, and a self-assessment tool in chronic disease. These tools are assisting educators in the required paradigm shift required of the workforce to alter the single disease based practice model towards a comprehensive and integrated population based approach required for the workforce in the 21st century.