Page 7 - HOSPITAAL

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 15 May 2018
La Maestra Give Patients Hope of Controlling Diabetes

them in our initiative,” says
Jones. “The Insulin Insights™
software works with all insu-
lins and glucometers and
doesn’t require patients
to change their behavior,
factors important in our
decision-making since we
work with a wildly diverse
population of people who
use different glucometers
and who have vastly dif-
ferent lifestyles. Because of
these points and the fact
that the software takes
only half an hour to set up,
we can see it scaling to our
other clinics.”
Mellitus Health’s cloud-
based decision support
software works with all
types of insulins and com-
binations, all 125 dosing
regimens and all glucom-
eters, providing dosing
recommendations to cli-
nicians in just seconds. Its
work expands upon and
automates the manual
system used in a yearlong
study in which 110 patients
saw their HbA1C levels fall
from an average of 11% to
7.2% in 12 months through
proper titration rather than
intensive lifestyle interven-
tion and coaching.
Mayer B. Davidson, MD,
Chief Medical Officer of
Mellitus Health, pioneered
the use of algorithmic dos-
ing of insulin. A former
Director of Pharmacy Byron Jones, Pharm.D., discusses the importance of testing blood sugar regularly with a La Maestra patient. president of the American
Diabetes Association and
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS they have a good chance La Maestra Community minute dosing consulta- former editor of its peer-
WIRE)--La Maestra Commu- at finally getting their blood Health Center, a Federally tion, and our pharmacy, reviewed journal, Diabetes
nity Health Center in San sugar where it needs to be. Qualified Health Center, which dispenses more in- Care, he authored two al-
Diego has found a way to Tweet this annually delivers care to sulin and gets much better gorithmic dosing textbooks
get patients with diabetes “Diabetes patients often 48,000 immigrant, refugee, outcomes for patients,” ex- widely used in medical
excited about a needle get discouraged because uninsured and underin- plains Jones. education and has trained
stick. With the introduction they test their blood sugar sured patients in central, Reducing blood sugar in more than 1800 clinicians
of leading edge, algorithm- all the time and inject their east, and south San Diego. people who have diabe- in manual algorithmic titra-
based insulin dosing soft- prescribed insulin and still From five clinics, it provides tes has important health tion of insulin. But, he says,
ware from Mellitus Health, don’t see their blood sug- an array of medical, den- benefits. A one point drop even for skilled practitio-
full access to its patients’ ars improve enough. They tal and social services in 26 in HbA1C, a measure of ners, manually calculating
electronic health records don’t see the payoff,” ex- languages to residents of average blood glucose dosing is challenging and
and a quick download of plains La Maestra Director the most diverse ZIP Code (blood sugar), can reduce time-consuming, leaving
blood sugar readings from of Pharmacy Byron Jones, in the United States. It also risk of microvascular com- little time for discussing the
patients’ glucometers, Pharm.D. runs the pharmacy, which plications such as diabetic broader healthcare needs
pharmacists at the clinic “Mellitus Health is chang- has full access to patients’ retinopathy, neuropathy, of patients.
can spot patients whose in- ing that by algorithmically medical records. impotence and kidney dis- “Our software incorporates
sulin dosing regimens aren’t recommending insulin and “That tight integration helps ease by 37%. many small, seemingly eso-
performing well. They then injection-specific dosing for not only our diabetic pa- “We immediately saw Mel- teric data points, enabling
refer patients to clinicians each patient with its Insulin tients, who often need to litus’ potential to initiate greater tailoring of insulin
for a five-minute consulta- Insights™ software solution. be taking more insulin or helpful drops in HbA1c and dosing than was possible
tion to adjust their regimens Patients are very interest- different combinations of wanted it for our patients. by hand,” Davidson says.
based on precision recom- ed—excited, actually—to short acting and long act- We identified about 150 “We’re excited to see the
mendations from Mellitus take their insulin because ing insulins to manage their patients with uncontrolled results from the La Maes-
Health’s software. they have a good chance diabetes effectively, but diabetes—those with tra collaboration and the
Patients are very interest- at finally getting their blood also our clinic, which sees HbA1c (average blood many pilots that are un-
ed—excited, actually—to sugar where it needs to a small increase in billed glucose) readings of 8.0 derway or beginning in six
take their insulin because be.” encounters for each five- or higher—and enrolled countries.”q