blood glucose levels news from FierceHealthIT

Of late there's been much talk about managing chronic illnesses effectively through the use of telemedicine technology. While most data seems to suggest that this approach has a lot of potential, the Read more...

In the past, we here at FierceHealthIT have noted the quiet but steady growth in the number of devices designed to monitor chronic conditions remotely, especially diabetes. In the case of diabetics, Read more...

Despite benefits, telemedicine barriers remain high Increasingly, it's become obvious that telemedicine has a place in the healthcare system, not only to improve care but also to conserve resources. Read more...

To date, most of the attention given to RFID implants has focused on blood glucose monitoring. Now, a non-profit serving dialysis patients is looking at ways to use implants as well. Working with Read more...

A report from the American Medical Association has taken a fairly ambivalent stance toward the use of implanted RFID technology to track patients.

On the one hand, the report notes, the technology could make it easier to identify patients--which would speed access to their medical data--and would also improve coordination of care and make medical processes more efficient. On the other hand, AMA authors worried the implanted devices might migrate under the skin, potentially causing …

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EMRs have long been held out as a key tool in the fight to better manage chronic disease. Given their capacity to review records automatically--and let physicians know when standard steps weren't taken--the idea seemed like a no-brainer. In reality, though, EMRs in and of themselves may not help much when it comes to improving diabetes care, a new study suggests. The study, which was published in the Annals of Family Medicine, looked the care diabetics got in 50 primary care …

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The University of Missouri School of Medicine has struck a deal with a commercial sector giant, Cerner, to develop patient care and physician training tools. Among other projects, the two will work to enhance Cerner's EMR system to better address care of chronic conditions. The partners will also give patients access to a version of the EMR, and allow them to enter vital statistics such as weight, blood pressure or blood glucose levels into the system. Another joint project is to develop …

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A Santa Cruz, CA-based health information exchange has developed a diabetes disease registry which has significantly improved providers' ability to identify and treat diabetics in their care. The network, which includes two hospitals, labs, radiology, pathology and transcription services, share information using technology from vendor Axolotl. About a year ago, the providers began using the technology to develop the registry, which identifies likely candidates for the disease and triggers …

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Wireless technology giant Qualcomm is jumping into the increasingly hot telemonitoring market, releasing wireless mobile network technology which will allow consumers to monitor varied health conditions. Qualcomm is offering a line of cell phones which will integrate capabilities such as blood glucose monitoring. The phones, which will converge with biosensors and medical devices, will also be capable of tracking other health indices such as aerobic activity. To run the related network, …

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As prices fall and capabilities expand, a broad array of medical devices making use of wireless technology are beginning to emerge. We're not talking about phones or PDAs here--but rather, devices that live on or inside patients. These include the PillCam, made by Israeli-based Given Imaging. A $450 capsule, the Pill Cam is swallowed by patients, then used to perform gastro-intestinal endoscopy tests. Another example comes from Germantown, MD-based Sensors for Medicine and Science. The …

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