Everything you know about diabetes care is wrong and why it should matter to everyone
Dr Ihsan AlMarzooqi, co-founder and managing director of GluCare Integrated Diabetes Centre, the world’s first diabetes clinic to empower patient through remote continuous data monitoring, on why coronavirus isn’t the only crisis that needs our attention
Dr Ihsan AlMarzooqi, Co-Founder and Managing Director of GluCare Integrated Diabetes Center
Public health and the economy are inextricably linked, this a fact the current pandemic has rightfully focused the world’s attention on. But, while we deal with coronavirus we must remember we have also been battling another crisis for far longer, the diabetes epidemic.
There are 55 million adults in the MENA region with diabetes, a figure that is expected to nearly double to 108 million by 2045. Whether you know it or not, you are highly likely to be connected to someone with diabetes.
Diabetes is a 24/7 condition, and the current healthcare model expects diabetic patients to self-manage their condition through a variety of measures. In cases of poorly managed diabetes, sub-optimal care or low compliance can lead to complications such as foot ulcers, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, depression, and death.
Along with the devastating human and health toll, the economic impact of diabetes is immense. The MENA region spends close to $25 billion a year on treating diabetes and its related complications. This figure is estimated to increase by 55 percent by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation. The indirect costs of diabetes to society includes absenteeism, reduced productivity and lost productive capacity due to inability to work due to related disabilities and early mortality. Diabetes affects us and costs us all.
So, with all the developments in technology and a growing wellness culture, why are these numbers rising? As someone who has extensive first-hand insight into the sector both professionally and personally, the answer is clear: there is a broken system that never did, and never will work.
Diabetes doesn’t stop between doctor’s visits, yet the current medical system acts as if it does. Doctors’ visits capture just a snapshot in time. Despite the importance of a patient’s ongoing behavior, what happens between visits is not captured. For doctors and clinicians, the time between patient visits is essentially an informational black hole. For patients, there is little to no support between visits with their care falling solely on their shoulders. While there has been innovation with devices patients use, there has been little to no real innovation to the model of care for hundreds of years.
One of the many reasons behind this lack of overall innovation is the fact that we still have a fee -for-service, rather than a fee-for-outcome model. The simple economics and systemic flaws mean that there is little incentive for providers to do better, let alone measure their outcomes.
There is a better way to help address both the individual, and wider costs of diabetes. It lies with using technology as a humanising force, and combining it with an empowering, supportive and transparent model of care. At GluCare, using wearable and connected technology, with the right technological platform, we can understand what happens to patients between doctor visits and use that information to support them and empower both the patient and clinical team. Harnessing the power of big data and machine learning is also key. Using artificial intelligence, we are able to identify risk scores of associated conditions, take the guess work out of the hands of our medical professionals and move towards a ‘continuous healthcare’ model.
Transparency is also key. We as healthcare providers need to be transparent with patients during their visits. We need to stop hiding behind desks and present the true situation using their own data, and educational material in a way that makes sense. From a business point of view, being transparent in outcomes and reporting strengthens the case for a fee-for-outcome models, incentivizing everyone in the system to do better.
How do we do this? Through cooperation and innovation between private and public sectors and shifting long held beliefs within the insurance industry. We need to prove that it does work.
Can we afford to do it? I would ask can we afford not to?
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By ITP
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Everything you know about diabetes care is wrong and why it should matter to everyone
Dr Ihsan AlMarzooqi, co-founder and managing director of GluCare Integrated Diabetes Centre, the world’s first diabetes clinic to empower patient through remote continuous data monitoring, on why coronavirus isn’t the only crisis that needs our attention
Dr Ihsan AlMarzooqi, Co-Founder and Managing Director of GluCare Integrated Diabetes Center
Public health and the economy are inextricably linked, this a fact the current pandemic has rightfully focused the world’s attention on. But, while we deal with coronavirus we must remember we have also been battling another crisis for far longer, the diabetes epidemic.
There are 55 million adults in the MENA region with diabetes, a figure that is expected to nearly double to 108 million by 2045. Whether you know it or not, you are highly likely to be connected to someone with diabetes.
Diabetes is a 24/7 condition, and the current healthcare model expects diabetic patients to self-manage their condition through a variety of measures. In cases of poorly managed diabetes, sub-optimal care or low compliance can lead to complications such as foot ulcers, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, depression, and death.
Along with the devastating human and health toll, the economic impact of diabetes is immense. The MENA region spends close to $25 billion a year on treating diabetes and its related complications. This figure is estimated to increase by 55 percent by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation. The indirect costs of diabetes to society includes absenteeism, reduced productivity and lost productive capacity due to inability to work due to related disabilities and early mortality. Diabetes affects us and costs us all.
So, with all the developments in technology and a growing wellness culture, why are these numbers rising? As someone who has extensive first-hand insight into the sector both professionally and personally, the answer is clear: there is a broken system that never did, and never will work.
Diabetes doesn’t stop between doctor’s visits, yet the current medical system acts as if it does. Doctors’ visits capture just a snapshot in time. Despite the importance of a patient’s ongoing behavior, what happens between visits is not captured. For doctors and clinicians, the time between patient visits is essentially an informational black hole. For patients, there is little to no support between visits with their care falling solely on their shoulders. While there has been innovation with devices patients use, there has been little to no real innovation to the model of care for hundreds of years.
One of the many reasons behind this lack of overall innovation is the fact that we still have a fee -for-service, rather than a fee-for-outcome model. The simple economics and systemic flaws mean that there is little incentive for providers to do better, let alone measure their outcomes.
There is a better way to help address both the individual, and wider costs of diabetes. It lies with using technology as a humanising force, and combining it with an empowering, supportive and transparent model of care. At GluCare, using wearable and connected technology, with the right technological platform, we can understand what happens to patients between doctor visits and use that information to support them and empower both the patient and clinical team. Harnessing the power of big data and machine learning is also key. Using artificial intelligence, we are able to identify risk scores of associated conditions, take the guess work out of the hands of our medical professionals and move towards a ‘continuous healthcare’ model.
Transparency is also key. We as healthcare providers need to be transparent with patients during their visits. We need to stop hiding behind desks and present the true situation using their own data, and educational material in a way that makes sense. From a business point of view, being transparent in outcomes and reporting strengthens the case for a fee-for-outcome models, incentivizing everyone in the system to do better.
How do we do this? Through cooperation and innovation between private and public sectors and shifting long held beliefs within the insurance industry. We need to prove that it does work.
Can we afford to do it? I would ask can we afford not to?
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