A NSW Health funded research trial in Western NSW
Type 2 diabetes care with specialist support, close to home.
eCARE brings an endocrinologist and a diabetes educator into a video conversation with a person living with type 2 diabetes and their own GP. No trip to the city, no waiting list, and no losing touch with the practice that knows you. Continuous glucose monitoring, the Diabetes Together app and diabetes education come with it, at no cost to patients or practices.
Taking part is voluntary, and free for patients and practices.
About the research
What eCARE is
eCARE — Enhanced Care through Case Conferencing and Remote Engagement — is a research trial funded by NSW Health through a Translational Research Grant. It tests a model of diabetes care developed over a decade by Western Sydney Diabetes, delivered through rural general practices rather than around them.
One conversation, four people
The patient, their GP, an endocrinologist and a diabetes educator meet together by video and agree a plan the practice then carries on with.
Why virtual, why Western NSW
Western NSW spans almost 250,000 square kilometres with few local specialists. Meeting by video brings specialist input to the practice instead of asking people to travel for it.
What the trial looks at
Twelve general practices take part over 18 months. The trial follows glucose control, quality of life and practice capability, to inform decisions about funding this kind of care permanently.
Where to next
For practices
What taking part involves for your team, what your practice receives, eligibility, reimbursement and the questions practices ask us first.
Practice informationFor patients
What eCARE offers if you live with type 2 diabetes, what taking part looks like, what it costs, and how to ask your own practice about it.
Patient informationWhy we are doing this
The background to eCARE — the rural NSW context, why this particular model suits it, who is paying for it, and what happens if it works.
The rural NSW context
Rural and regional New South Wales has strong, trusted general practice and a high level of diabetes need. What it has less of is local specialist support: few endocrinologists are based in the region, and funding arrangements do not readily support integrated, team-based chronic disease care in general practice.
eCARE starts from the capability already in these communities and adds specialist and educator support to it, rather than asking people to travel away from the practice that knows them.
Why the Western Sydney model suits a rural setting
The model works in Western Sydney, and many of its elements are well suited to a rural setting. It brings city-based specialist resources to support rural general practice rather than pulling patients away from it.
A decade of that work has consistently shown that sustained improvement depends on building capability inside general practice teams — which is exactly what a rural practice needs when the nearest endocrinologist is hours away.
How it is resourced
NSW Health has funded this trial through a Translational Research Grant, combined with our own resources and support from pharmaceutical partners for education, CGM access and digital tools.
The Diabetes Together app and clinician dashboard — our version of the Health2Sync platform, with AI food-photo coaching and 200+ education videos — comes with the trial at no cost to your practice or patients.
What success would mean
eCARE — Enhanced Care through Case Conferencing and Remote Engagement — is a time-limited research trial, not a new routine service. Its purpose is to generate the evidence needed for decisions about scale and permanent, recurrent funding.
If the model works here, we will advocate together — practices, partners and patients — for state and federal funding to make it permanent.
Proven, published results
Ten years of building this model. eCARE tests how well it travels.
Through its Connected Care program, Western Sydney Diabetes has spent a decade building — and publishing the outcomes of — a way of helping general practice manage diabetes better. People with type 2 diabetes who went through a virtual case conference with their GP, a specialist and a diabetes educator, informed by CGM data, achieved substantial improvements in glucose control within three to four months.
MetaDiab has been providing case conferencing across Western NSW and we have tested the model here, with really positive outcomes. Ask the GPs who have taken part — they will tell you what it brought their practice.
eCARE does not begin from a standing start either — a year of staged orientation with the Local Health District and Primary Health Network preceded the trial.What has already happened in Western NSW
eCARE partners and contributors
eCARE is a collaborative, system-embedded initiative. Delivery of the trial and its evaluation depends on shared stewardship across these partners — select any to see its role.
General practices and general practitioners
The central setting for care delivery, case conferencing and translation of learning into routine practice.
MetaDiab
Specialist diabetes case conferencing partner with Care Partnership – Diabetes, and working with WSD to deliver CGM-enabled case conferencing within the research framework, while continuing to provide non-urgent pathways.
Private endocrinologists
Selected metropolitan-based specialists contributing expertise through virtual case conferencing, supported by MBS items.
Supporting partners
NSW Health, through Translational Research Grant funding; the Agency for Clinical Innovation, through alignment with state priorities; and pharmaceutical and technology partners supporting education, the Diabetes Together platform, convening and CGM access during the trial.
Sydney Health Literacy Lab, School of Public Health, University of Sydney
Leading the qualitative evaluation component of the TRGS-funded research.
Western Diabetes Hub
Regional health system partner supporting research implementation, diabetes educator involvement and alignment with hospital-based services.
Western NSW Care Partnership – Diabetes
An initiative of WNSWLHD, WNSW PHN and theRural Doctors Network.
Western NSW Local Health District
Collaborator and host organisation for the research project, managing governance, coordination and administration.
Western Sydney Diabetes
Originator of the model of care; clinical leadership; coordination of the specialist, digital and education components; research implementation.
Together, these partners enable eCARE to operate as a real-world trial embedded within existing health system structures, rather than as a standalone research project.