It has long been a dream of many parents of children with diabetes to be able to know their child’s blood glucose level when the child is away from home—at school, at camp, at a sleepover, or on a class trip, for example.
One such parent is Kevin McMahon, whose daughter was barely two years old when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in May 2001. “A two-year-old living at home is subjected to whatever we do,” he noted. But what about when she got older and went to school? How would he and his wife keep track of how she was?
Unlike many parents facing this dilemma, McMahon had the technical expertise to solve it. He had worked on hospital information systems and had several years of experience with a major telecommunications company, where he dealt with wireless networks and interactive video.
“There ought to be a way,” he mulled, “to take all this stuff I’ve been doing and apply it to diabetes.”
What he came up with was the GlucoMON, a wireless device that instantly sends blood glucose numbers to whomever the user designates, almost anywhere in the world, in whatever format is convenient for the recipient: computer, cell phone, or nearly any other electronic device that can receive a message. You don’t even have to be a “techie” to operate the GlucoMON: Just check your blood glucose, slip your meter into the GlucoMON, and it does the rest. The system can be used not just to monitor children, but also to stay in touch with disabled or elderly friends or relatives with diabetes. Doctors can use it to monitor people who are learning to manage their diabetes, or to keep tabs on hospital patients more efficiently.
This single device has led to a company called Diabetech and to what is becoming a smorgasbord of products and services that aim to make life easier for people with diabetes and those who care for them, including their doctors.
Dr. Stephen Ponder, a pediatric endocrinologist based in Corpus Christi, Texas, is helping to develop Diabetech’s offerings. Dr. Ponder has been involved in studies of the GlucoMON that have tested its use in different situations.
One such situation is home visits. If you’re old enough, you may remember the doctor paying a visit to your home when you or another family member was sick. Dr. Ponder now does home visits, too. But while you can see him and he can see you, he’s in his office in Corpus Christi, and you’re in your house. The visits are conducted using Web cameras and a high-speed Internet connection. Appointments are also booked on the Internet, and the GlucoMON is used to transmit blood glucose readings ahead of time, which means Dr. Ponder can look them over before the appointment.
“The technology gives me the ability to reach into their [homes] and guide them,” he says of his patients who participate in electronic visits. “It’s not as encumbering to my practice [and it] makes it easier for me to check back on patients.”
In his practice, Dr. Ponder requires that someone be an established patient and know a bit about diabetes before participating in electronic home visits. The person also has to come to his office at least once a year for an in-person visit. But for other visits, patients can avoid the time and expense of driving to the office.
On one occasion, a GlucoMON even kept a patient out of the hospital. Dr. Ponder was working in the emergency room when he got a call from a patient who was developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a life-threatening condition characterized by insufficient insulin, very high blood glucose, and dehydration. The young man’s blood glucose numbers were automatically sent to Dr. Ponder, who then called the patient and told him what to do. “By the time evening rolled around, he was out of [DKA],” Dr. Ponder says. “[The GlucoMON] saved him from being in the hospital.”
Diabetech’s products and services (which also include an HbA1c test — a common measure of blood glucose control — that can be taken at home and mailed in to get results) have garnered grants from the federal government to study the effectiveness of some of the ways McMahon and Dr. Ponder are using them. One current study examines whether use of the GlucoMON can lead to better blood glucose management in women with gestational diabetes. Plans also exist to study using the device in rural areas that would otherwise lack access to diabetes specialists.
There are other ways to share blood glucose numbers electronically, although none is as portable as the GlucoMON. One is the Eocene System, which transmits the numbers from a blood glucose meter to an online database; it requires connection to a phone line. And numerous programs exist that allow the user to store data from a blood glucose meter online by connecting it to a computer wirelessly or with a cable. Depending on your needs, any one of these systems may work for you.
