A new study published in the March issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association suggests that the sooner people with diabetes start taking metformin, the longer the drug remains effective.
According to a Kaiser Permanente study, metformin, an inexpensive, generic drug that helps patients prevent dangerously high blood sugar levels, worked nearly twice as long for people who began taking it within three months of their diabetes diagnosis. This is said to be the first study to compare metformin failure rates in a real-world, clinical practice setting. Other studies compared failure rates of metformin only in clinical trials.
According to a news release announcing the study, metformin is recommended as a first-line agent in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but in most patients it eventually stops working, forcing them to take additional medications to control their blood sugar. Each additional drug adds extra costs and the possibility of more side effects including weight gain, so this study is welcome news for newly diagnosed patients, researchers said.
“This is an important finding for the 30 million people world-wide who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year. The sooner they start taking metformin, the better and longer it seems to work,” said the study’s lead author Jonathan B. Brown, PhD, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. “This study suggests that to gain full benefit from metformin, patients should start taking it as soon as they find out they have diabetes.”
According to the news release, researchers used electronic health records to follow nearly 1,800 people with diabetes in Kaiser Permanente’s health plan in Washington and Oregon for up to five years. Metformin failed at a rate of only 12 percent a year for the patients who began taking it within three months of diagnosis. That compares to a failure rate of 21.4 percent per year for patients who started taking metformin one to two years after diagnosis, and 21.9 percent per year for those who didn’t start taking the drug until three years after they were diagnosed.
“We believe that starting the drug early preserves the body’s own ability to control blood sugar, which in turn prevents the long-term complications of diabetes like heart disease, kidney failure, and blindness,” said study co-author Gregory A. Nichols, PhD, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “The American Diabetes Association recommends that patients start taking metformin and make lifestyle changes as soon as they are diagnosed. This study provides more evidence to back up that recommendation.”
The press release noteThe study was funded by Novo Nordisk, Inc., a company that does not make or sell metformin and has no financial interest in, or connection to, Kaiser Permanente.
Study authors include: Jonathan B. Brown, PhD, MPP, and Gregory A. Nichols, PhD, from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and Christopher Conner, PharmD, PhD, from Novo Nordisk, Inc., Seattle.
Click here to read the full study:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2009/12/29/dc09-1749.full.p df+html
Tapping into the increased popularity of online forums, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) says it will add an online health community to its Blue365 program – a comprehensive, nationwide program designed to offer Blue Cross and Blue Shield members innovative healthcare tools and resources.
According to the association, the new online health community will expand upon an award-winning Web site established in 2005 by Portland, Ore-based Regence BlueCross BlueShield. Regence’s online community, myRegence.com, was chosen as the model for the Blue365 online community because of the features it offers, many of which the Blue365 program hopes to include, such as self-directed wellness activities, multimedia content and educational resources, support groups, and health forums on a variety of topics.
“Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies strive to offer our members the best value and resources to support their healthcare decisions and help them maintain a healthy lifestyle,” said Scott P. Serota, president and CEO of BCBSA. “This new online community will give members the opportunity to connect with others about healthcare issues that are important to them.”
The Blue365 Online Health Community will pilot with a select group of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that include Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, with more Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies expected to sign on in the coming months.
“We are excited that the Blue365 program has chosen our member website as a model for the national platform,” said Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Regence BlueCross BlueShield. “As our online community has grown, we’ve developed the expertise to identify and implement the features our customers want.”
Blue365, which was launched in 2007, helps consumers navigate the healthcare decision-making process, maintain a healthier lifestyle, and maximize the value of their health benefits. In addition to the new Online Health Community, the Blue365 program includes AskBlue™, a decision support tool designed to help educate consumers of their best choices when selecting health insurance coverage options for themselves or their families, and the Affinity Program, which provides members access to special products and discounts at Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Reebok, Snap Fitness, Westin Hotels, Polar, eDiets, Everlast, and other nationally recognized suppliers.
The Blue365 Online Health Community will officially launch in select markets in fall 2010. For more information about Blue365, please visit http://www.bcbs.com/365community.
Source: BCBSA
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) announced today that it is expanding its mobile offerings by introducing three resources for the Mobile Web – via MyHumana Mobile. The new mobile resources enhance a person’s ability to make health care decisions at the point of service and maximize access to Humana’s most effective tools and resources. These mobile tools are:
- Mobile Urgent Care Finder
- Mobile Spending Account Balance Viewer
- Mobile Member Information Tool
Mobile Urgent Care Finder enables a person to find an urgent care facility near them by entering a ZIP code. For smart phones, including the Apple iPhone, the tool uses the device’s built-in GPS feature. Details provided include the facility’s phone number, driving directions and a map. This allows for faster access to the data in an easy-to-use format.
Mobile Spending Account Viewer displays a person’s recent spending account activity and current balance details. Research has shown a greater and more frequent need of balances and account-related information for people using spending accounts, such as Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts. The intent is to have the details available at the point of purchase or service.
Mobile Member Information Tool shows health-plan member details on demand, including the Member ID number and the member’s group name and group number. The Mobile Member Information Tool and each of the MyHumana Mobile resources are designed to meet people’s needs when they’re on the go.
“MyHumana has been providing guidance to people for many years. MyHumana Mobile offers a portable extension of that guidance, taking advantage of the features of mobile devices and smart phones, especially the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Google Android devices,” said Bruce J. Goodman, Humana’s chief service and information officer. “Our mobile strategy provides great flexibility across devices to engage members with a rich experience. Mobile devices are continuing to evolve into a comprehensive and increasingly personal communication platform, and we want to provide the mobile tools our members want and need.”
These resources are available to Humana members today by browsing to http://m.humana.com from their mobile browser. No additional registration is required as a person’s existing MyHumana login information is used to access MyHumana Mobile.
Mobile applications will be offered soon in 2010 to further improve mobile capabilities for Humana members. Humana’s long-time work to connect with people about their health and wellness is positively influencing the strategy and execution of Humana’s mobile development on three levels including Mobile Web, Mobile Applications and Text Messaging.
Additional Mobile Web features will continue to leverage http://m.humana.com as the entry for a person’s experience.
GE Healthcare has announced its new clinical knowledge platform that enables healthcare delivery organizations to improve performance against their quality targets. Its is called Qualibria.
According to a press release, Qualibria gives clinicians more control over patient outcomes by bringing together real-time data from existing IT systems and comparing these data against shared baselines of evidence-based best practices.
Qualibria is the result of a multi-year collaboration between GE, Intermountain Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic.
“As with many healthcare institutions, clinical excellence is a top priority at Intermountain,” said Marc Probst, Chief Information Officer of Intermountain Healthcare. “We partnered with GE to build Qualibria because we needed an innovative platform that would continue Intermountain’s history of clinical quality improvement while allowing us to share clinical best practices with other organizations who have a passion for improving their performance. We’re very proud of the contributions we’ve made to Qualibria and we believe that it will allow our institution and countless others to achieve new levels of quality.”
GE also announced today that Mayo Clinic has agreed to an expanded collaboration on Qualibria. For the last two years, Mayo Clinic has contributed Informatics and clinical expertise to build Qualibria’s medical terminology management tools. The result is a platform that will allow clinical knowledge and best practices to be shared across organizations in a new, open architecture. Through this expanded collaboration, Mayo Clinic will provide expertise in developing this platform for the delivery of best practice clinical content, including knowledge, protocols, and care guidelines that will be made available to other Qualibria customers.
The press release went on to note that care delivery is becoming more focused on performance – at every level. Qualibria supports performance improvement initiatives by alerting clinical staff to variations from desired practice leading to reduction of inappropriate variation in care delivery. By presenting dashboards for specific sets of patients, based on condition, role or other criteria, Qualibria enables immediate access to relevant patient data, resulting in better clinical and financial outcomes.
Here are some of the benefits that Qualibria is said to deliver:
For clinicians:
- More control over data, enabling care providers to rapidly review trends and patterns as well as variations from locally agreed best practices.
For hospital executives:
- Track and manage quality initiatives at the time of care delivery, rather than only through retrospective reporting.
For information technologists:
- Sophisticated tools that leverage existing and emerging Heath IT standards to take the heavy lifting out of connectivity between existing systems. Qualibria can combine data from both GE Centricity systems and non-GE systems.
For more information about GE Healthcare, visit theirwebsite at www.gehealthcare.com
