Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Diabetes support via mobile phone

mpro care screenshot Diabetes, or at least, Type II diabetes seems to be an affliction of modern, sedentary life. It has very serious implications with heart and sight problems associated with it and a strict dietary and medical regime in order to regulate and manage it. A member of my family has Type II diabetes and the associated heart condition and mood swings as well as a plethora of drugs and blood testing paraphernalia. You never quite get used to seeing someone you love inject themselves with insulin. What it must be like to actually have diabetes, I can only imagine. And I only hope that it remains imagination with me and that I don’t succumb to it.

Anyway, the bright folks at Mobile Health Tech, a mobile healthcare service provider, has rolled out its first commercial trial of mPro Care at Clarkstown Medical Associates PC in New City, NY.

MPro Care is the first two-way mobile diabetes solution that provides automated reminders and accepts readings using standard mobile phones on all major U.S. service providers.

Diabetes patients text back their blood-sugar readings, which are captured and plotted on a patient diary card graph in a secure portal for online access by either patient or physician. Nifty.

mPro Care was developed to help improve patient medication and treatment compliance for improved health care outcomes and reduced cost of care for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, coronary artery disease and hypertension, asthma and obesity.

More information about it in this article on Mobile Marketer.

I suspect many of these patients are in the latter halves of their lives so I hope that the people creating and running these services have taken that in to account. As a refresher, you may want to have a listen to this podcast of Dick Stroud’s session on marketing to the Over 50s.

3 comments:

  1. Katherine Wood1:48 pm BST

    I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes five years ago and inject myself with insulin whenever I eat which is usually five or six times a day. People often say to me, how can you inject yourself but let's face it, if someone tells you to do something or you'll die, you learn pretty damn quick! Diabetes support via mobile phone is a clever concept. I'm not sure it's a service I would want or need to use, but it's good that it's available to those who do.

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  2. >>You never quite get used to seeing someone you love inject themselves with insulin.

    Well, I wouldn;t quite agree with that. One of my brothers was diagnosed with diabetes 12 or so years ago at the age of 21.

    As Katherine notes - it's a case of "getting on with it". So, I'm well used to seeing my brother shooting up now and he certainly doesn't feel the need to hide it.

    No question that it's an awful affliction.

    Not too sure about the efficiency of this service. How about taking it a step further so that blood sugar testing kits automatically fire off the text message back to base? That would be smart.

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  3. This market is led by a UK University Spin out called t+ Medical.

    Founded by Doctors they have now launched across the globe a service, received investment from Vodafone and have an informative website where you can get lots more information

    http://www.tplusmedical.co.uk/information/01Patients--04tplus_diabetes.html

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