The Strategic Data Management S5HEALTH diabetes management portal has been developed by the father of a type 1 diabetic, who also has over 15 years of experience in Healthcare and 30 years of experience in IT. Information is key to the successful management of diabetes. Our system addresses the 5 areas of diabetes management that enable patients, family members, caregivers and medical staff to better manage diabetes. We call the system S5HEALTH.

Strategic

The first thing a diabetic patient must have is a strategy of how they will manage diabetes. Patients respond to the treatment of diabetes in different ways. Some patients have problems maintaining proper blood sugar levels in the morning while other patients have difficulty at night. Patients respond differently to exercise and different types of exercise. Some patients’ blood sugar goes low while swimming or running while others show little effect from exercise. Patients respond to food and types of food differently, something as simple as chewing a piece of gum can cause spikes in some patients’ blood sugar levels. Other patients respond differently to the dosage and types of insulin being used. Because of all these variables and the amount of information a diabetic must track, it is imperative a patient captures and saves information and works with their doctor to design a diabetes management system that is customized to the patient.

The S5HEALTH System was designed with this in mind. A patient and doctor can easily create views of different blocks of time throughout the day to manage and treat the specific events that have an effect on blood sugar levels. These blocks of time are customized to the patient and can change as the needs of the patient changes. The chart to the right is an example of a dashboard a patient can use to easily understand how their blood sugar levels change throughout the day and what caused the change.

 

Smart

Patients have multiple types of device choices from different manufactures to record blood sugar, insulin and carbohydrate amounts.  Many times patients or caregivers need to manually enter notes or amounts into a system, for example a school nurse    or the patient who has a meter just for school, and often these blood sugar levels are not included in blood sugar reports. Patients are forced to run a report from each of these devices then try to piece the information together to make sense of what happened. Any notes that were manually recorded are lost and not included in the record, so often not included in blood sugar numbers sent to their provider. Most patients and providers only look at the last two weeks of blood sugar levels with incomplete information to determine treatment. Histories of blood sugar levels are not maintained and results of past changes to bolus, basal, and food dosage rates are not measured and tracked.

The S5HEALTH System was designed with this in mind and our system supports all manufacturer's pumps and meters.  A patient loads the appropriate software on a PC for each device used then prints a PDF report that is securely uploaded to our system. The system is smart enough to combine all the reports into one patient record. The system also allows manual entry and notes to be added to the record so a complete view of the history is created. Family members and caregivers can be given access to the record to enter notes and blood sugar levels. 

Simple

The charts and reports available today by most diabetes device manufacture are hard to read and contain too much information. They include blood sugar rates, insulin dosage and averages all in one report. The result is the reports and dashboards are not used by patients or providers because the reports are not simple and intuitive. The other problem with these reports is they are static and not interactive.

The S5HEALTH System was designed with this in mind. Our dashboards are interactive, simple and intuitive. Blood sugar levels, carbohydrate and insulin levels and trends are easy to identify. Since S5HEALTH combines information from different sources, tracks changes to insulin and food dosage levels, and keeps all history, a patient can easily spot trends and problem areas with a simple click of a mouse.

Social

One of the important things for diabetic is support from family and community. Families with diabetic children need to know they are not alone and there are many other families that share their daily challenges.  Many good national social sites exist where diabetics can share stories, challenges, and successes with each other. The problem with these sites is they are not local and true relationships are hard to develop. The saying that “healthcare is local” is never truer than with diabetics.

The S5HEALTH System was designed with that in mind; our system connects families that are dealing with diabetes with other local diabetic families who have been through the same challenges and issues. The system lists local events and workgroups of diabetics that have the same providers, demographic, and cultures. Family members and diabetics can blog, share information and receive support from other local diabetics and family members. Below is an example of a blog and chat room where diabetics can meet online with other local diabetics.

Self

Diabetics and families of diabetics have to deal with a lot of changes and a massive amount of information. It is very easy to rely on the diabetic nurse or doctor to suggest changes to rates and dosage levels. As parents we know we should help our kids become self sufficient, but most parents are overwhelmed with the amount of information they must manage and confused with the tools the meter and pump manufacturers have created to help them manage their children’s diabetes.  Because of that many parents rely on the nurse or doctor to make changes to dosage levels and to manage their children’s diabetes. Diabetics who grow up not understanding how to manage their disease can have complications as a result.

The S5HEALTH System was designed with that in mind; we have designed an easy to use system that can be customized to the individual needs of a diabetic or their family. Information from pumps and meters are easy to upload and notes can simply be added to any data item.  Trends and patterns are easy to identify and since history of changes and values are saved, diabetics can learn what works for them.  By using the S5HEALTH System diabetics can take control of their diabetes instead of the disease managing them.