|
E-mail this page to a friend!
'Diabetes PHD' Launched Today as New Online Health
Risk Tool
Half of diabetes cases appear in seniors, late
bloomers over 55
May 31, 2005 Senior citizens and late Baby
Boomers - the most likely to develop diabetes can not find a new
interactive tool online that makes it easier for people with diabetes --
and anyone at risk for developing diabetes, heart disease, or stroke --
to better manage their health, according to the American Diabetes
Association, sponsor of the new free Diabetes PHD (Personal Health
Decisions). The ADA says it is the most accurate health risk profiling
program ever developed.
|
Statistics on
Diabetes for Seniors, Baby Boomers
Click Here |
|
|
Medicare & Diabetes |
|
|
Beginning January 1, 2005, Medicare covers the
following diabetes-related services:
Welcome to Medicare Physical
For new beneficiaries enrolling after January 1,
2005, Medicare will cover a one-time thorough review of your
health, education and counseling about the preventive services
you need, such as certain screenings and shots, and referrals
for other care if you need it.
You must have the exam within the first six
months that you have Medicare Part B.
Diabetes Screening (Fasting Plasma Glucose
Test)
Medicare will cover tests to check for diabetes.
These tests are available to individuals with any of the
following risk factors: high blood pressure, increased
cholesterol, obesity, or a history of abnormally high blood
glucose (sugar) levels. In addition, these tests are available
for those individuals who have at least two of the following
risk factors: overweight, family history of diabetes (parents,
brothers, sisters), a history of gestational diabetes (diabetes
during pregnancy), delivery of a baby weighing more than 9
pounds, and age of 65 or older.
Based on the results of these tests, you may be
eligible for 1 or 2 diabetes screenings every year. Talk to your
doctor for additional information. |
|
The tool is available through the Association's Web
site at
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetesphd.
Diabetes PHD enables users to enter personal health
parameters such as age, sex, height, weight, health history, and
medications; in return, users receive an extremely accurate health risk
profile. Most important, the risk profile provides an accurate picture
of how the individual can change their risk by changing modifiable
health parameters such as weight, blood pressure, or cholesterol.
The tool can be used to help both patients and
health professionals make informed choices about how best to reduce a
patient's risk for diabetes and/or its complications.
The risk of diabetes increases with age and
approximately half of all diabetes cases occur in people older than 55
years of age. Estimates are that 18.3% (8.6 million) of the United
States population age 60 and older have diabetes.
"This unique and extremely powerful tool can be
used by patients to determine how they can reduce their risk of serious
complications by achieving their goals of therapy," said Catherine J.
Tibbetts, RN, MPH, CDE, President, Health Care & Education, American
Diabetes Association. "The rationale is that, after patients see what
the future likely holds for them, they can use the tool to learn what
steps they can take to live healthier, longer lives."
Clinicians can also leverage the tool to better
understand which potential treatments offer the most benefit. Most
patients with chronic illnesses have several different metabolic
problems at the same time, and each problem can require a variety of
different treatment strategies. Diabetes PHD will be extremely useful in
helping prioritize the optimal selection and sequencing of these
treatments.
Diabetes PHD allows users to create an individual
profile containing a detailed range of basic health-related information.
After the personal health record is created, the user submits the data
to be run by Diabetes PHD. The program then processes each individual's
information to provide a highly accurate and detailed risk profile.
During the computation time, which averages 5-6 minutes, users are
offered the option of staying online to receive their results -- during
which time they are offered tips and information about diabetes and
healthy living -- or they can choose to receive an e-mail notification
when their results are ready.
But the Diabetes PHD experience does not end there. After receiving the
targeted risk profile, the user can then modify various health variables
such as weight, blood pressure, and lipid levels to see the effect that
these changes have on their long term risk for diabetes and its
complications.
The software underpinning for Diabetes PHD is
Archimedes, which was developed by Kaiser Permanente with support from a
grant to the American Diabetes Association from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Archimedes is an extremely comprehensive model that simulates the
biological processes underlying the development of diabetes. Archimedes
takes into account virtually every variable that comes into play in a
person's health, from smoking to weight to blood pressure to
medications, and it takes into account the inter- relationship of each
of those variables (e.g., losing weight reduces the risk of heart attack
directly and it also tends to lower blood pressure, which reduces the
risk for other health factors such as kidney disease and stroke). No
other simulation model is as comprehensive, nor has any other model used
in medicine been validated as extensively as Archimedes.
The grid distributing platform underlying Diabetes
PHD has been licensed from United Devices. The user interface has been
developed by IMC2.
"Caring for patients with a chronic disease is very
complex, and the human mind is usually unable to sort out and interpret
all the existing medical information as it may apply to a specific
patient," said David Eddy, MD, PhD, the co-inventor of Archimedes.
"Archimedes integrates most, if not all, known factors relevant to
clinicians in their decision-making and, thus, can address practical
issues with a great deal of confidence," added Dr. Eddy.
More than 18 million Americans have diabetes, a
disease characterized by high blood glucose levels that result from
defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. Diabetes
can lead to severely debilitating or fatal complications, such as heart
disease, blindness, kidney disease, and amputations. It is the fifth
leading cause of death by disease in the U.S.
Diabetes PHD is made possible by the Association's
"Doing Better: Tools for Diabetes Care" initiative, which is funded by
unrestricted educational grants from AstraZeneca LP, Lifescan, Inc.,
Novo Nordisk, Inc., and sanofi- aventis. The goal of the Doing Better
Program is to provide clinicians and patients with tested, practical and
inexpensive ways to improve diabetes self- management and medical care,
and thereby reduce the burden of this serious disease. Diabetes PHD is
one of the several tools the Association will be providing under the
Doing Better Program.
The American Diabetes Association is the nation's
premier voluntary health organization supporting diabetes research,
information and advocacy. The Association's mission is to prevent and
cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by
diabetes. Founded in 1940, the Association provides services to hundreds
of communities across the country. For more information, readers can
call the American Diabetes Association at 1-800-DIABETES
(1-800-342-2383) or visit
http://www.diabetes.org/. Information from both these sources is
available in English and Spanish.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
