Dubai: Regular monitoring of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension can lead to better control and management of the conditions, reducing the national disease burden, said Alisha Moopen, executive director of Aster DM Health Care group.
The group launched a chronic care@home programme for residents on Wednesday.
The programme was initiated through a pilot study by the group in which nearly 100 patients from different nationalities participated for three months. They were given Bluetooth-enabled glucose testing meters and blood pressure testing devices. The results posted by the devices were shared via cloud technology with a central monitoring unit. Patients were advised on a daily basis about testing their parameters, given diet sheets and motivated to exercise or walk for 30 minutes. Physicians were available round-the-clock for consultation.
Nearly 58 per cent of the patients in the study were able to greatly improve their health parameters within six months merely by amending their lifestyles and making healthy dietary choices. They were able to reduce the most important diabetes parameter — HbA1C test — considerably without having to increase their medicine doses. The HbA1C blood test reveals aggregate blood glucose levels for four-eight weeks and is indicative of how well diabetes is being controlled.
Dubai resident Sugandhi Rao, 56, who participated in the study, was able to reduce her HBAIC blood glucose levels from 7.2 to 6.4, while Vivek Mani, 36, who was struggling with poor diabetes control with an HBAIC level of 10.2 was able to bring it down to 5.9. “I was losing my vision as I could not control my sugar. Now I feel totally energised, have clear vision and am thrilled with the results,” said Mani.
Inaugurating the services, Amal Al Mehrizi, head of performance management unit and health regulation department of Dubai Health Authority, said: “This system makes use of technology to make health-care delivery affordable and accessible to all, empowering the patient with education and awareness and ultimately, reducing the negative impact of these chronic diseases.”
The Aster Chronic Care@home package includes smart diabetes and blood pressure monitoring devices, constant care monitoring and fast track services, which are available for a one-year home monitoring subscription cost of Dh999, following doctor’s advice.
Renewal of home-monitoring subscription in the subsequent year can be availed of at Dh299.
The service is currently available in Dubai, and will expand to other emirates in the coming months.
