Glucostratus · Bringing the benefits of interactive digital health to the care of elderly persons with diabetes

Diabetes is a growing problem globally, with a total number of diabetes affected people of 60 million (2015) in Europe, expected to grow up to 71 million in 2040. This problem particularly affects elderly people, as the prevalence of diabetes increases to up to 20% at age 70+. Addressing these challenges is of utmost importance considering that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030 and theproportion of elderly people is rising steadily. Most importantly, elderly diabetes patients have special needs, as for example diabetes-related tasks (e.g. blood glucose tests and injecting insulin) have to be handled by visiting home care nurses who also have the task of entering the results to medical records.The current smartphone solutions are not suited for elderly patients since they require fluency with smartphones and Bluetooth device connections. Glucostratus has developed a remote blood glucose monitoring system (Smart + Balance) to measure glucose levels of elderly patients, while allowing their remote follow up, guidance and better patient↔healthcare professional communication. The Smart glucometer has a built-in 3G mobile data connection which automatically sends the readings to the cloud platform (Balance) through an encrypted connection. Balance is thus a secure data storage, with embedded functionalities for data sharing (patient↔healthcare professional) and for data analysis & decision support. The concept aims to improve: i) support that diabetes patients are getting through remote monitoring and automated guidance based on their real-time blood glucose data and individual settings; ii) availability of comprehensive blood glucose history as well as analysis for decision support to healthcare professionals; iii) ability of healthcare professionals to intervene early when a patient is not meeting treatment targets; iv) workflows and cost-effectiveness of diabetes-related nurse activities in home care; and (v) easy-to- use system.