Diabetes affects about 10% of the population; According to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The disease imposes a huge financial burden on health systems and also leads to early death and poor quality of life. However, patients and health care professionals will now be able to work together and the disease in better and more effective ways.
The reaction-health project, an EU-funded ICT research project that came to completion in February this year has developed an exciting set of tools and technologies that are helping patients with diabetes and their doctors manage the condition better.
RESPONSE project coordinator, Lydia Montandon says: ' the main purpose of reaction was to examine how information and communication technologies (ICT) patients and health care professionals can support in the management of diabetes by providing efficient and scalable tools that can be used in different contexts of health care across Europe. The result is an intelligent service platform that can be used for remote monitoring and therapy management, continuous and tight control of blood glucose levels and other vital signs that are crucial for good diabetes management and insulin therapy easier. '
Learn from patients and healthcare professionals
The response project is concerned patients and health providers since its inception. Patients at the Medical University of Graz in Austria and in primary care patients being treated at the health centre Chorleywood in the United Kingdom have the system use to manage their condition. In each stage the users of the system have given feedback that helped the researchers to design a system that is effective and intuitive.
In the hospital, nurses and doctors both said that the tools used (response GlucoTab ® system) helped to make them better care plans for their patients. The improved on-site documentation and predictions provided by the system meant that they could give more accurate doses of insulin. The result is that glucose levels of patients much more stable in the recommended target range remained. At the health centre, patients used the system to keep a close eye on their symptoms and their vital signs. They could then share these lectures with their doctor or nurse, and were much better able to stay healthy as a result.
That go beyond technology for better health
During the research project the teams developed a number of tools, such as GlucoTab ®, a Tablet PC-based system that doctors and nurses on the best course of treatment for each patient, a smartphone app that allows patients to control their diets, advises and networks of protocols that patients and health care professionals to share lectures from a variety of sensors worn or physically resides on the patient's body. In addition, it has made significant progress in the search for glycaemic control, automatic integration of blood glucose sensors and insulin dosing algorithm developed in the project.
But outside the hi-tech developments, reaction has also looked at the social, economic and legal implications of the technology. In the course of the project, the researchers documented how users and healthcare professionals felt about the technology, in order to better understand what tools like this might make more socially or professionally acceptable. They also studied the legal frameworks in the Member States with regard to privacy and liability. In addition, the reaction was GlucoTab ® system CE marked and can now be used in a clinical routine. The monitoring devices adapted for primary care patients, and gateway also passed safety and EMC tests and have received a CE mark. As a result, the response project has advanced technology for diabetes management much closer to reality.
Finally, the GlucoTab ® system in may 2014 won the price search for man-technology-Interface in the category "economic applications" granted by the Government of the Federal State of Styria.
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