Access to diabetes care: How continuous care and technology is the key

Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the need for remote patient management and how data is centric for better care. Through technological advancements, it is now possible to remotely monitor any patients dealing with chronic issues while at home or remote health care facilities.

According to research, individuals with diseases like diabetes, obesity, chronic heart issues may benefit from digitization, as it can empower them, help in understanding and managing about their condition like taking medications more consistently, and support the patient in communicating better with care providers.

 The digitalized techniques can also be used to check the patient's glucose levels vitals like blood pressure heart rate weight along with lifestyle data like exercise, mood and sleep CGM insulin pumps, IOT devices and smart apps.

This greatly improves health outcomes and the quality of life. Technology using digital technologies for monitoring and care Digitalization allows hospitals to continuously monitor patient glucose levels lifestyle data vitals and, in turn, assist in therapy by alerting medical staff to any changes in parameters that call for treatment or intervention.

On the other side, the addition of AI helps to streamline protocols and processes, particularly emergency protocols, which not only makes the system run efficiently but also helps to reduce human errors. Diabetes data is the key for improving diabetes outcomes. There are numerous modern devices available for managing diabetes.

Examples include continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS), which measure glucose levels for 14 days glycemic variability (GV) time in range (TIR) to track trends in glucose levels. On the other side, professionals use digital technology to analyse food photographs, fitness tests, SPO2, VO2 Max, and other metrics in order to comprehend the effects of lifestyle modifications in diabetes.

All of the parameters analysed by the devices must be gathered in order to obtain information, create correlations, and to begin treatment. 7Sugar, a digital therapeutics platform helps people living with diabetes along with the data that helps simplify information obtained to connect care along with analytics and reports, doctors can consult with their patients remotely using the 7Sugar platform's built-in telehealth software to give a 360 degree approach in diabetes management.

(The writer is a Consultant - Diabetes and Endocrinology, Manipal Hospital Hebbal)