What do you get when you combine cell phones, text messaging, mobile browsers, glucose meters, educational content, patient profiles, personalized predictive blood sugar models, hypoglycemia prevention training for insulin pump users, various algorithms for determining right time, right place, appropriate feedback, diabetes educator consults over web cam, office based visits for initiating insulin pump therapy, training patients on multiple daily injection therapy, nutrition education and carb counting?

Now add general health and wellness programs to the mix. And just for fun lets also add home diagnostic test screening for early assessment of risk for heart disease and the most advanced asthma management program ever currently being developed in partnership with one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country.

Can you still call the company who does this Diabetech? Obviously not. That’s my reason for this post - simply that Diabetech is in the process of launching its commercially available programs as “healthimo™ ” - a mobile health community network provider.

The Diabetech name will continue to be synonymous with innovative diabetes technology research while healthimo represents the culmination of 9 years of learning how to change behaviors using an elegant mixture of unobtrusive technology and social networking as a proven model for accomplishment of telehealth objectives. We already have several thousand healthimo members using our services at no cost - FREE. If you’re interested to learn how your community can tap into healthimo, drop me a line at guide @ healthimo-dot com.

We’re very proud of our little Stevie as he is getting ready to present the inaugural Webinar to over 300 diabetes educators via the J&J Diabetes Institute. They initially had 200 slots and those were gone in less than 48 hours. So, they added 100 more. I just looked and those are all gone now, too.

From the JJDI site:

Tapping into the Social Side of Blood Glucose Monitoring
Friday, January 22, 2010
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM (Americas) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

In Tapping into the Social Side of Blood Glucose Monitoring, Dr. Stephen Ponder will lead an energetic discussion about the role of the diabetes provider in SMBG and will also cover innovative communication methods to encourage appropriate testing with your diabetes patients. In this Webinar, you will get the chance to learn and participate in the discussion about a variety of topics, including: how to navigate the challenges to effective SMBG and how Dr. Ponder and other diabetes healthcare professionals approach the challenge of identifying creative ways to help patients understand the value of testing.

Presenter: Stephen W. Ponder, MD, FAAP, CDE, Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Institute Faculty

There is no more space available in this event.

I really love that Steve gets this opportunity to share his experiences with others. Hopefully at least a few of those hundreds are there to actually learn and change the way they help patients.

Did you attend? What did you learn? How will this new knowledge affect the way you work with your patients?

Through the course of the past 8 years I have gradually stopped trying to figure out how to get JDRF involved in the innovative research that I’ve had a hand in. My research has been focused on the here and now - lower hanging fruit for sure vs a cure found in the lab. In addition, mine is a commercial venture focused on helping people to more easily manage with the help of information technology in the form of wireless devices and some pretty slick software.

It’s taken a few $million to get here from a combination of credit cards, friends and family and the ability to win several competitive research grants from federal agencies and lesser known medical research foundations. We recently announced preliminary results from our most rigorous scientific study that showed how our technology, in the hands of patients, provides a clinically significant benefit vs. the current standard of care (ie - a full point reduction in A1c and reductions in glycemic variability all without the dependency on additional visits to the clinic or participation by their medical providers). A subsequent peer review and publication will be the final judge but I can already say that we now know a few special things that can be done today at very low cost to have a significant impact on reducing complications from type 1 diabetes.

I used to think this goal was something I had in common with the JDRF and always struggled with the fact that there has never been a constructive dialogue with them - only my pleadings and attempts to share what I have been learning along the way. Nothing ever came out of those discussions - absolutely nothing. Yet, the data shows that Diabetech and our research partners have the stuff that mitigates complications and makes life with diabetes easier for all concerned.

In light of JDRF’s recently accelerated behavior as some kind of new wave Robin Hood who takes donations from families who walk for a cure and gives millions to large multi-national corporations, I have to wonder if they are now my competitor? I also wonder if this precedent will stifle a company’s future willingness to fund R&D out of their own pocket when they know there is this JDRF bankroll in the wings? What about new investments into this field that don’t involve JDRF? It seems like that just got riskier too since your new fledgling project might find itself up against a giant waving the JDRF banner. So did they just monopolize innovation regarding diabetes technology?

Weird.

Some healthy reading over at Journal of Diabetes, Science and Technology that opens for discussion one man made barrier to accomplishing not only the artificial pancreas but also many of the step wise advancements that might be discovered along the way. This article begs an answer from JDRF as to how they plan to clear these roadblocks. Hopefully they won’t be spending more millions buying up patent licenses or implementing inferior workarounds. Otherwise their first millions may be a waste of money and could easily require a lot more than what is on the table at present. After all, if JDRF is ready with the cash what incentive is there for the for profit entities (assuming there will be more partnerships like this in the future) to fork over the dough?

From the article, this diagram below shows just how many patents are in play around a closed loop artificial pancreas.

Figure 2. Number of U.S. Patents filed per year related to closed-loop glucose control systems obtained by searching for the terms “closed loop”, “glucose control,” “artificial pancreas,” and “diabetes” combined with the most relevant IPC classes (A61M, A61B, and G01N). Similar terms were considered (e.g., “close” instead of “closed”, or “analyte” instead of “glucose”).

Download the full article from the Journal of Diabetes, Science and Technology website here

Hi Larry, my company can help move this forward through the clinical trial process with much of what you need at the lowest total cost for your next step. Gluconix for clinical trials.

The path isn’t impossible but the incumbents didn’t make it easy (on purpose I’m afraid). The safety issue must be managed as part of a plan that moves you toward commercialization but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t get this in the field to demonstrate that it works (or maybe not). You can go to our website to send me a message.

We’ve also figured out how to win $1.5M in competitive grants to date helping to support randomized, controlled clinical trials of our ADMS as we move toward commercialization so that might come in handy, too.

My message to Larry was also posted as a comment to the article.

Reposted from glucoKIDZ (http://glucokidz.com)

Halloween is tough for kids with diabetes. When all your friends are eating candy it seems really unfair. After all, most of us know that candy is just another word for “sugar”, and we need to watch how much sugar we eat every day. So how do you take care of your diabetes and still have fun at Halloween time?

Candy doesn’t have to be bad for you, as long as you know how much candy is enough. It’s true you can’t just eat all you want and stay in control of your diabetes. So…what can you do at Halloween? Here are some ideas.

Grab as much candy as you can, but just keep a little. Give the rest away to your friends. Sounds crazy? You’ll be the most popular person at school or in your neighborhood. It might even get you some special favors from your friends later. But be careful who you give the candy to since their parents may not want them to eat too much either, even though they don’t have diabetes. A little of the candy you keep can be eaten a couple of times a week instead of a fast carbohydrate at a meal or snack. For example, substitute a small Snickers bar for a bedtime snack. Make sure you do this with your doctor’s ok.

Another idea is to go to a Haunted House party. There are lots of those every year. You can hang out with your friends, get scared by the guy without a head or touch the slimy guts in the bucket. You can also work some of the foods there into your diabetes meal plan with your parent’s help.
The last idea is for the really tough GlucoKIDZ out there. YOU be the one who gives out the candy at your house. Try to give out healthier treats: small granola bars, sugar-free chewing gum, maybe even fresh fruit to people you know well (and who know you). Your parents can help you buy some healthy treats to give out.

Whatever you do, the most important thing to do is HAVE FUN at Halloween. After all, trick or treat is about being with friends and family; dressing up scary, pretty or just plain silly; sharing with others, and having a good scare every now and then. Having diabetes is no reason not to have fun at Halloween!

What is the Healthy Families Program?

* HFSTX is an education and health monitoring community resource designed to establish a home based support network around people with diabetes and at risk for diabetes.

Program Goals:

* To improve self-care for patients and their families by increasing their knowledge of better lifestyle choices.

* To provide encouragement and reinforcement.

* To extend access to care into the home vs an unrealistic emphasis on office visits.

How does it work?

* Through Internet and cell phone technology and postcards, enroll patients and their families in the Healthy Families Registry.

* Over time, the Registry helps them to enhance individualized profiles making it possible for their team to receive personalized education and support via email, cell phone text messages and post cards in the mail according to their own preferences.

Check back in a week or two to find out the url for the online home for this program as this is still being decided.

We also know that it has to be incredibly simple and the person using it has to get valuable feedback as a reward from using it. I think that’s what makes Zip It! different than other approaches. Since it’s part of our technology enhanced diabetes education and management programs, covered by a growing number of health plans including BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, we know when it gets used, how it gets used and we track the impact of using it.

So advanced, it’s simple.