The Transformation of Diabetes Care Through the Use of Person-Centered Data

The health care industry is undergoing a major transformation. Despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has not seen a commensurate improvement in the quality of care. Chronic disease management puts the greatest burden on the health care system with estimates suggesting that 3 of 4 health care dollars are spent on managing chronic disease. Moreover, the number of older patients with chronic conditions, like diabetes, is rising as expected, which only serves to worsen the physician shortage problem we are currently experiencing, and further increase health care costs. Unless new models of health care are established for these patients, they simply will not be served. Consistent with the message above, there are generally 3 universal health care needs, (1) improved outcomes, (2) expanded access, and (3) optimized cost and efficiency. It is likely the future state will involve value-based health care, with payment based on outcomes, not services rendered, and incentives tied more directly to the value delivered. Medical device providers will be held more accountable for positive outcomes, and to ensure success, they will need to create better solutions with their therapies. Instead of the touch point with patients being solely at the time of a procedure or sale of the device, it is likely companies will need to drive toward a more comprehensive partnership with patients, providers, and payers, extending the scope of services and interactions to provide a continuum of care. In general, companies will need to start to think of their most important customers as people living with a condition, as opposed to patients needing immediate medical devices. In this article, I discuss the challenges of health care today and present some of the opportunities to revamp health care delivery in diabetes by leveraging the pervasive use of mobile technologies and digital data.