Diabetech

Diabetech has formalized the patient support mechanism including the patient and multiple non-clinical team members including family members, school personnel, friends and other people with diabetes.

Case Situation

Hierarchical clinical models whereby patients take direction from clinicians have only limited effect in the outpatient setting. While improving patient compliance through more frequent clinician contacts has shown to improve short-term outcomes, this model is not realistic given the lack of access to experienced health care providers in rural areas, specialized nursing shortages and the steadily increasing rate of diabetes in America. A new model based on peer support to augment the clinical model is now possible and is realized by new specialized enabling technology.

Case Solution

Diabetech® has formalized the patient support mechanism including the patient and multiple non-clinical team members including family members, school personnel, friends and other people with diabetes. The patient’s team is now empowered with information regarding the patient’s disease state and degree of compliance to the stated regimen and/or the patient’s own goals. Using two-way communication allows the team to remind, encourage, sympathize, and promote healthy choices with the patient in real-time.

Better Health and Lower Cost

During multiple studies throughout the US, patients with diabetes have enjoyed greater independence while their care team has enjoyed increased peace of mind. In addition, we have documented frequently improved family relationships due to automated information sharing which sheds light on patient testing and actual blood glucose values. In addition, patient teams have become proficient with glucose pattern analysis, a skill considered essential to self-diabetes management, since it has become a dramatically easier task. With Diabetech’s GlucoDYNAMIX System, automated glucose trend reports are delivered by the system without any effort on the part of the patient or his/her team. Certified Diabetes Educators (CDE) state that blood glucose logbooks should ideally be reviewed for trends every 4 to 7 days in order to compensate for changes in metabolism and lifestyle over time. Given that this review now only takes 15 seconds, thanks to automated report delivery to the patient and his/her team, in a CDE designed day-over-day trend format, patients perform glucose pattern analysis more frequently than with manual logbooks or PC data uploads. Formal publication of this finding is pending final review later this year.