In the emerging mobile health arena today, healthcare professionals are not the only ones asking questions about how best to utilize the nature of mobile devices and cloud computing to optimize the patient experience. Patients themselves are asking the questions too. As a diabetic himself, Matthew Tendler is the vice president of Telcare, the creator of the world’s first cellular-enabled glucose meter for diabetics, and a unique voice amongst software developers in the mobile health space.
Tendler detailed in an interview at the Mobile Health Expo in New York City today that Telcare has embedded a GPRS chip inside a handheld meter, which allows a diabetic patient to send all glucose readings directly into the cloud. Once in the cloud, the data from the readings can then be analyzed by the patient’s physician. If necessary, the physician can even message the patient, and both can sign into www.telcare.com to co-analyze the patient’s readings and examine long-term performance results.
Telcare also provides a suite of mobile applications which enable parents to log into the cloud to see their children’s glucose readings from anywhere in the world in real time. With the ability to see their childrens’ readings from any mobile device at any time, parents are able to have a better hand in the relationships their children have with healthcare professionals, as well as the real-time ability to have an impact on their children’s immediate health.
Tendler elaborated on Telcare’s efforts to create a patient-to-patient community for diabetics. The software from Telcare is currently integrated with Facebook and Twitter, but as Tendler noted, neither platform is ideal for patient-to-patient relationships. He described other sites such as www.dlife.com which provide adequate ways for patients to communicate with each other, but Telcare is the first of its kind to introduce this kind of community through software and an actual glucose meter.
As Telcare is currently awaiting FDA clearance on its Telcare BGM, the glucose meter it is displaying at the Mobile Health Expo today, it hopes to have obtained clearance by late summer or early fall of 2011. So far, the reactions from healthcare providers and patients have been overwhelmingly positive for the product.
Patients in particular are thrilled to be able to tag all their glucose readings in addition to the increased simplicity of taking glucose readings through the device. Healthcare professionals are given broader visibility to all patients with the solution. In the event that a patient experiences an extreme drop or spike in blood sugar, the physician can message the patient directly through the meter.
As the mobile health arena broadens, Telcare is looking forward to its certification and arrival as the world’s first mobile glucose meter device for overall improved patient health and progress.
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Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for HealthTechZone. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
