Smart Meter Releases Survey Results Revealing Clinicians' Top Pain Points Around Effective Patient-Centered Diabetes Management

TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart Meter, LLC, an innovative diabetes management data, technology and solutions company, recently surveyed 170 healthcare providers at the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) event in August of 2018 to gain insight into the barriers clinicians face to implementing effective patient-centered strategies for diabetes management. The survey found that sharing blood glucose results and patient communication between visits are top challenges for diabetes healthcare providers. 93% of all surveyed providers said that patient communication between visits is an issue, with 31% of providers ranking it as their top pain point. Nearly half (42%) said that not having patient results available at the time of the visit is a key barrier.

Patient-centered approaches incorporating remote patient monitoring (RPM) have the potential to reshape diabetes management by allowing patients and healthcare providers to work together as a team to manage blood glucose testing more effectively between appointments, and to make their interactions more meaningful. However, there are barriers to successful and effective adoption of patient-centered diabetes monitoring strategies. In particular, reliably recording and sharing data with the healthcare provider can be a significant burden for the patient which can result in incomplete data for the clinician's review.  In Smart Meter's AADE survey, 92% of respondents confirmed timely and incomplete patient data at the time of a patient visit as a significant obstacle to delivering effective care.

"A clinician having a complete and accurate real-time view of their patients' blood glucose levels between office visits – and to have these results readily available during the patient's visit - allows for more meaningful interactions between the patient and provider and offers greater efficiency for the provider," said Vivian Nnacho Ayuk, PharmD, CDE, CEO, FlexCare Health Solutions Inc. "But, prior to cellular technologies, options available to facilitate these remote monitoring diabetes management strategies have traditionally presented their own unique set of obstacles."

Technology challenges can often lead to patient noncompliance or inconsistent sharing of results. Of the surveyed healthcare providers:

• 93% said that teaching patients how to share data with current technology is a time-consuming challenge;
• 87% attributed complex technology to patients not sharing data.

Even when patients are using technology correctly to collect their data, downloading patient blood glucose results during their office visit often wastes valuable time that the healthcare provider could be spending in consult with the patient. Only 13% of diabetes healthcare providers said that the time it takes to download patient results at time of visit is usually not an issue.

"The results of this survey highlighted what significant challenges communication and having access to patient data can be for clinicians who provide care to people with diabetes," said Cliff McIntosh, CEO of Smart Meter. "The importance of making diabetes management technologies simpler to use and having more reliable ways to share real-time blood glucose results between patients and their care teams were clearly expressed by clinicians surveyed at AADE.  Our  iGlucose® Cellular Diabetes Care Solution addresses and resolves these frustrations and provides a simple, affordable platform to assist in delivering care when needed."

Many of today's blood glucose meters or software apps use Bluetooth, require Wi-Fi networks to sync blood glucose results or require manual input -- all requiring added steps, complexity and time.  As a result, patients may be less likely to consistently and regularly record and share their results with their clinicians in a timely manner. Alternatively, Smart Meter's iGlucose® Cellular Diabetes Care Solution uses global cellular connectivity to automatically share results at the time of testing with no added technology required. This removes any burden for the user and provides clinicians with a reliable, complete, real-time view of their patients' condition between visits, better allowing the care team to intervene when there is cause for concern.

About Smart Meter, LLC

Smart Meter is an innovative diabetes management data, technology and solutions company that supports and enables connected health through the proactive management of diabetes. Its iGlucose® Cellular Diabetes Care Solution provides a global level of simplified connectivity for the person with diabetes, the health care professional, payer and strategic partner.  The iGlucose Solution starts with the iGlucose Cellular System, a simple, convenient and affordable way for people to test their blood and seamlessly record and share those results. The iGlucose Population Management Portal, is a powerful tool to review real-time data for clinicians and others managing populations for improved remote monitoring.  An iGlucose API makes it easy to integrate the iGlucose data into any existing patient management or support platform. To learn more, visit www.iglucose.com or watch this short overview video. You can also follow us on Twitter at @iglucose, or LinkedIn at Smart Meter LLC. 

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SOURCE Smart Meter