As reported today in a Kansas City infoZine article , the NIH/NIDDK has launched an A1c awareness campaign relating to the various methods of testing blood for A1c and their ability (more like inability) to deliver accurate results. Considering over 850 causes of interference with A1c testing, most A1c’s are at risk of delivering the wrong information and that problem exists in both directions; falsely high and falsely low and that could spell big problems for the patient.

Fortunately, we saw this coming and have been developing our HomeCheck-A1c over the past 24 months. It is unique in its ability to detect these variants and also uses the most highly accurate method in one of the highest quality labs in the country to ensure good information based on sound science.

Like I said, everyone needs to have a reliable A1c and you can’t get that unless you use HomeCheck-A1c!

More info and ordering at http://ezA1c.com

On this very important day known as World Diabetes Day, I’m very pleased to announce the expansion of our Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) Staff at Healthcordia to include a past President of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) as well as several very experienced pediatric and adult Registered Dietitians. I would also like to salute all diabetes educators everywhere. Their job is often difficult, frustrating and sometimes rewarding. I see them as the people on the front lines of this terrible and growing epidemic who every year are becoming more and more outnumbered and with insufficient reinforcements filling their ranks.

In a twist on diabetes technology and diabetes care, two phrases not often mentioned in the same sentence, our CDEs work with patients remotely including access to our ADMS (Automated Diabetes Management System) and use email, chat, phone and even video conferencing to communicate with their patients enrolled in our modernized version of an annual diabetes management program known as HomeCheck-365.

When as a person with diabetes you’re doing all you can do and it’s still not enough, it’s time for a Shout-Out for guidance on nutrition, troubleshooting, etc… Many people with diabetes feel isolated and feel they don’t have anywhere to turn that’s convenient and also with an expert who is in a position to consider their health profile including an accurate history of blood sugar control. Our staff has been working on these programs with patients for many years now and we really believe this is what makes the difference between throwing technology at people vs. walking people through a process including CDEs who happen to access data automatically from patients who use leading edge technology. When you focus on technology by itself or diabetes education in isolation, you’ll come up short every time. However, by blending the two we are able to efficiently drive improved patient outcomes through behavioral change.

This program does not subscribe to the typical disease management approach of making scheduled phone calls to the patient only to run them through a checklist or survey. Rather, a HomeCheck-365 educator working with a technology-enabled HomeCheck-365 patient typically knows why the patient’s calling even before the call.

To borrow from a cliche, ‘If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always gotten’. So on this Diabetes Day of Days, my wish is for more people to truly think past the old ways of doing things and think smarter from the perspective of Outcomes. Stop thinking more technology or more office visits. Start with the end (outcomes) in mind then fill in the gaps with a plan to get there. That’s HomeCheck-365 working with patients in concert with their diabetes physician.

PumpWear Joins Us In Our Product Launch Activities for HomeCheck-A1c, The World’s Most Accurate A1c

Thanks for your time in advance of reading this very exciting article announcing HomeCheck-A1c and our newly created strategic marketing relationship with the team at PumpWear, Inc. Additionally, healthcordia, llc is pleased to add PumpWear as a case supplier for our diabetes programs targeting corporate wellness programs and regional hospital-based diabetes care networks.

Julie from PumpWear and I have been talking about working together for several years since our common focus is to improve the tools used by families with type 1 diabetes. Just as PumpWear provides the best cases for your insulin and blood glucose meters (my daughter wears her pump in a PumpWear case with the softee belt option), Diabetech & Healthcordia have evolved to deliver the best in diabetes technology & programs including our latest product just released called HomeCheck-A1c.

First, let me tell you why we created this product. We have been working closely with endocrinologists, diabetes educators and hundreds of type 1 kids and their families for over 5 years while developing sophisticated technology that simplifies diabetes management for everyone. As an extension of the diabetes practitioners, we help these patients and their families to achieve better outcomes as defined by lower A1c, fewer episodes of hypoglycemia and reduced excursions of hyperglycemia. Along the way, we also partnered with behavioral scientists focused on diabetes. Diabetes is already difficult to manage since there are so many things that influence blood sugar levels. Anything that can be accurately measured eliminates one variable in this guessing game they call type 1 diabetes thus helping us to make better decisions. With the spotlight on behavior, we realized how important it is to give the patient precise feedback not just a test result ‘in the ballpark’.

Our first task was to improve the accuracy of glucose meters (50% of glucose meters have the wrong time setting as discovered in recent research¹) with our GlucoMON® wireless device by managing the clock inside the glucose meter thereby making historical analysis for trends safer, more accurate, more automated and therefore more effective.

As we moved beyond the glucose meter we found that there are over 800 reasons why a person’s blood may be of abnormal composition and unable to support an accurate A1c result [ie – Residual Fetal Hemoglobin (HbF)]. This is often referred to as having hemoglobinopathies.

Did you know that your physician’s A1c is never screened for abnormal blood composition yet it is processed and reported to you anyway?

We also learned that the typical A1c is always subject to large variances frequently in the neighborhood of +/- 0.5 to a full point or more off from the true A1c². That would be like the speedometer on your car showing 55mph when you were actually driving 68mph and then wondering why you got pulled over for speeding³(see below).

Clearly, we don’t accept that level of inaccuracy from our cars so why do we accept this for our child’s healthcare?

While most physicians don’t talk about it in this way, getting your A1c is a bid deal for us families with a child with type 1 where every point counts. In our healthcordia programs, we also found that while most families plan to get their A1c every 3 months, a significant number of us are actually visiting our diabetes doctor less frequently than planned, for various reasons.

Bottom line: We need the most accurate A1c feedback possible to effectively understand the impact of our current diabetes management strategy and the effects of our daily choices on overall blood sugar levels.

We also learned that comparing a school year A1c to a summer time A1c doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. After all, the value of the A1c is in comparing the current diabetes management plan to the previous plan assuming that all things are similar. Assuming we made changes, and we usually do, are we heading in the right direction or the wrong direction?

We learned that for most people, approximately half of their erythrocytes (red blood cells) change every 30 days. That is to say that half of your A1c result reflects the prior 30 days and that the notion of an A1c no more frequently than every 90 days is primarily an insurance limitation.

The quarterly A1c policy has clouded the real timing of A1c as the patient’s tool for assessing glycemic control. especially during the midst of major changes in therapy (MDI to Pump) or changes in lifestyle (School, activity levels, etc…) which often times have nothing to do with the quarterly visit to the doctor and his A1c.

Sometimes you need to know your A1c more frequently than every 90 days and sometimes less frequently. It all depends on you and your individualized needs and that means flexibility outside of physician’s office visits.

Around 2005, we realized that we needed to come up with a better approach to A1c checking. We evaluated all of the options and we came up with the world’s most accurate A1c with the convenience of direct shipping to the patient’s home.

Our A1c is different from the typical A1c on many counts. The patient-friendly design only requires a finger-stick drop of blood (3uL) which can easily be taken at the same time as a finger-stick for checking blood glucose levels with your glucose meter. The HomeCheck-A1c blood sample is stored in small vial containing a life-extending fluid which keeps your sample good for up to 30 days. When our lab receives your sample, we check it to ensure quality and that it’s clear of hemoglobinopathies and other forms of interference which are not checked by other A1c’s. So first, we check it and make sure that an A1c makes sense for the sample. If we find interferences we let you know and this is something that you definitely need to speak with your doctor about as it could indicate the potential for other conditions. However, assuming your sample passes the hematology screening, we then analyze it using a method called HPLC-BA which is usually reserved for analyzing blood samples involved in clinical trials where hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line for evaluating the effectiveness of some new therapy.

Following several clinical trials with HomeCheck-A1c, we are proud to partner with PumpWear to make the world’s most accurate A1c your A1c; available direct-to-patients without a prescription for $29.95 plus shipping & handling.

While most people buy HomeCheck directly from us and use it to assess their progress on their own schedule, other people want to use HomeCheck in place of the physician’s A1c. In this case, we sell the kit to your physician and you agree to pay a co-pay at the office visit. Just have your doctor contact us in advance of your visit and we can add your doctor to our list of professional clients.

You can order HomeCheck-A1c online at http://healthcordia.com

First, select the HomeCheck-A1c logo for more info, then ‘Get It Now’, then enter your contact information. An invoice will be generated and e-mailed to you for electronic payment using MC/VISA/PayPal.

So advanced, it’s simple.

Footnotes:

¹ http://challengediabetes.diabetech.net/2006/05/05/what-the-world-needs-now-is-accurate-data/

² http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/1/135?ck=nck

³ Example: True A1c is 8.0; A1c result from the endocrinologist’s office reports 7.5 using a finger-stick benchtop analyzer with results available in 8 minutes Comparison for analogy assumes that the A1c variance is in relation to a non-diabetic A1c of 5.9. Relative variance for assessing effectiveness of individualized diabetes management therefore equals 24%.