Sunnyvale-Based Yahoo! Launches Online Disease Management System for Diabetes Patients
Sunnyvale-based Internet portal Yahoo! and Carlsbad-based health care software company iMetrikus yesterday launched an online system on the Yahoo! Health Web site that will help people with diabetes track their blood sugar levels, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Under the Medicompass system, users will enter basic health information, such as height, weight, exercise and nutrition habits and blood pressure levels on the Web site. The system also allows users to enter daily glucose measurements recorded by a blood sample device through a universal port device called MetrikLink, which is manufactured by iMetrikus. The system will use color-coded charts and tables to indicate the health status of users based on the information entered. Users can grant online access to their health information to their physicians, diabetes specialists or family members, who can help them manage their disease (Tansey, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/7). The system also will allow users to track their disease over time, and physicians can use the health information entered by users to make treatment recommendations (Silber, Contra Costa Times, 8/7). Access to the system costs $4.95 per month or $39.95 per year; the MetrikLink device costs $79.95 (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/7). Dr. George Dailey, a physician at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif., who helped develop Medicompass, called the system "the wave of the future" in disease management. Health providers have "grabbed tightly hold of the concept" of disease management as "one that can control spiraling health care costs," the Times reports (Contra Costa Times, 8/7). Jerry Franz, a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association, said that Medicompass and similar systems would help people with diabetes. Bill Rutter, chair of the iMetrikus board, said that in the future the company may expand Medicompass to help people with other chronic diseases, such as asthma, obesity or hypertension (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/7).
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