A Non-Profit Practice Based Research Network
(PBRN) for People With Type 1 Diabetes
Kids with diabetes at school are at high risk for severe changes in blood
sugar levels that often lead to seizures, coma and sometimes death.
This in spite of all the efforts to develop better tools for
injecting insulin and measuring blood sugar levels. There is a small
research system already in operation since 2002 keeping these kids
safe. How about coming together on a project to equip every kid with
diabetes with a wireless biometric monitoring connection that can
help the school nurse and the child’s parents keep track of him/her
and intervene before bad things happen? In addition to the health
risk, schools are spending an inordinate amount of time trying to be
their substitute parent primary caregiver.
This solution involves off the shelf wireless technology, off the shelf
medical diagnostic glucose meters, advanced analytical technology,
accurate diagnostic testing and a service component to make it all
work seamlessly. Imagine a real-time system for every kid in school
used by parents to help nurses and teachers!
A Non-Profit
Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) for people with type 1
diabetes
The long pole of
clinical research is often the time required to recruit qualified
patients into a new research trial. Depending on the focus of the
trial, a very limited group of unknown patients may be required and
finding them in sufficient numbers is often an expensive and time
consuming process. Combine that with the fact that most doctors
claim to be overworked don't have the extra time it takes to actively
recruit and you've got a serious barrier to finding answers.
One example of
this research is the study of dynamic metabolic processes in newly
diagnosed type 1 diabetes (also known as Insulin Dependent Diabetes
Mellitus or IDDM). If only there was a way for researchers to tap
into a pool of patients with detailed profile information including a
way to contact these patients for participation in an observational
study that would help shed light on things like the process of beta
cell destruction by the body's own immune system? Further, what if
researchers had a real-time connection to daily biometric data and
behavioral insight that allowed researchers for the first time to
witness what is actually happening with that patient BEFORE
recruiting into a study?
Diabetech's
patient network and the platform we use to support them has been
building since our first trial in 2002. We currently possess reliable
patient data from willing patient research participants that goes
back as long as 5 years for some patients. What we propose to do now
is expand the focus of our research programs to include this notion
of a perpetual longitudinal study supported by the healthcordia
platform.
Recruiting Patients to the Network
In 2001 following my daughter’s diagnosis with type
1 diabetes, I knew we needed a simple and automatic connection to my
sweet kid while she’s at school or out and about just being a kid.
The result of that need and a lot of hard work and sacrifice is the
GlucoMON®
wireless glucose meter and real-time remote glucose alerts (not to
mention the automatic trending logbook for improving blood sugar
control). Who wouldn't want that?
Sweet Kids Practice Based Research Network Benefits
Participation in the
Sweet Kids PBRN means something for everyone:
For Patients
- Free
or Discounted Access to simple and easy to use advanced diabetes
management tools like the GlucoMON for real-time monitoring services
and automated trend identification.
- Access to the world's most accurate and precise A1c technology
- More convenient care with remote physician and CDE consults
For Schools
- Simplified
communication with parents of children with type 1 diabetes
- Access
to an Online Personal Health Record to ensure that all caregivers
are on the same page
- Streamlined
oversight saving time for school nurses and lay caregivers with
increased levels of safety for the kid with type 1 diabetes
For Providers
- Saves time
- Deliver better care
For Researchers
- Tap
into the Network and watch your visions accelerate from ideation to
realization
For Foundations
- Focused
giving with immediate tangible results
- Stem
the tide of autoimmune diabetes through research for cures, cure
therapies and keeping these people healthy while the race for these
cures continues
Sweet Kids is proposed as the expansion of no less
than 5 years of research funded by Diabetech with support from
LifeScan, Animas, AT&T and others in the field of real-time
remote glucose monitoring of children with diabetes. Our
GlucoMON®
wireless glucose meter is the #1 field tested solution for keeping
kids safe at school and we have the research to back it up working
with several children’s hospitals, endocrinologists and hundreds of
families across the USA. When the GlucoMON becomes commercially
available - NOT EVERY FAMILY WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT. That’s why
securing funding for the Sweet Kids PBRN is so important.
Contact us to register for the network and let us
know if you are a Patient, School, Provider, Researcher or a source
of funds to grow it.
Sincerely,
Kevin McMahon
President & CEO Diabetech
