Medical researchers at Charles Sturt University are receiving overseas assistance to develop an early-warning system for detecting diabetes and heart disease in regional Australians. “Over 1 900 Australians are diagnosed each week with diabetes. We are looking to find the risk factors to help calculate the chance of a patient developing this debilitating disease, using common medical tests and computer software,” said research group leader, Dr Herbert Jelinek. For the past five years, around 800 participants from Albury-Wodonga and surrounding areas have provided heart rhythm readings, inner eye photographs, blood samples and feet tests, which are being analysed to find trends that will help detect the disease in its early stages. All this data is now part of comprehensive database developed over three months for the CSU research group by Emilien Pecoul, a postgraduate student from the University of Poitiers in France. “We are looking to prevent diabetes rather than deal with it after it happens. This software will enable us to search more efficiently and effectively for simple tests and factors that could signal early signs and help patients and medical professionals deal with it before it develops further,” Dr Jelinek said.