The first FDA cleared and CE
certified Bluetooth ® blood glucose meter recently was announced and launched in
the U.S. by Entra Health Systems. The MyGlucoHealth meter and MyGlucoHealth
Network form an “integrated telemedicine platform”. It’s a great start to
bringing our many meters, log books, and other forms of data into the same
place and saved for patients and healthcare professionals to review.
The meter works in combination
with a real-time online data collection network to upload and manage readings
using a mobile phone or computer. Patients can securely transmit and evaluate
readings while communicating results to families or physicians.
Test results can be seen in three
seconds and has a blood sample size of 0.3 microliters. This compares to most
other meters that have ~ five seconds and 0.03 microliters Test strips are
automatically coded, which is a big advantage. All in all, this sounds pretty
competitive – we don’t know what kind of strips it uses or if these will be
covered by insurers, which is always a big question. The technology can monitor
the testing results and also the patterns of the testing. The company points
out that the network can set up reminders to test more frequently and even
notify the patient’s family or caregivers when results exceed certain
thresholds or fluctuate.
We’re happy to see a Bluetooth-enabled device finally hitting the market and potentially
eliminating the need for the box of cables and mismatched meters. However, we
wonder how many people with diabetes would feel like a wireless leash was
attached to their meter if their family and caregivers were immediately seeing
each and every reading at all times – it will be interesting to test reactions!
You know, call me slow, but I had never thought about this type of technology being used to monitor the pattern of testing, along with the results of the testing. That does bring another whole level of usefulness to this type of tech.
Posted by: Scott Johnson | 05/06/2009 at 03:04 PM