Researchers measured insulin and C-peptide levels of 87 diabetics(67 men and 20 women). Actually, beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin also release the C-peptide-a polypeptide composing of 31 amino acids. Although C-peptide does not actually affect the blood sugar of a person, the doctors can measure its level to figure out how much insulin the person’s body is making.

What made researchers measure the C-peptide levels along with insulin levels in the diabetics under study? This is because C-peptide gets secreted at a more constant rate across time durations as compared to the insulin secretion. Also, C-peptide levels are more stable compared to the insulin levels (its half-life is nearly six times that of insulin)which facilitates testing of beta cells’ response, the study has pointed out. The results revealed that the persons included in the study had largely the features of adiposity characterised by high body fat, abdominal fat and fatty liver condition, which may not be visible from outside.

The study has concluded that nonobese (BMI below 25) and even lean (BMI below 19) Indians have high body fat, excess fat in the liver and skeletal muscles and lesser skeletal muscle mass. In particular, they have ectopic fat in the liver (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and pancreas (nonalcoholic pancreas disease), which may contribute to insulin resistance leading to diabetes even in young age.

Along with high body fat and visceral fat, researchers also found elevated levels of insulin and C-peptide in the 87 diabetic patients studied by them. Such patients would benefit better from pharmacotherapy using insulin sensitizers or weight loss therapy, the study noted.

Summarising the outcome of the study, Dr. Anoop Misra, chairman Fortis C-DOC who led the study, told India Science Wire: “Indians have normal weight-high body fat and low muscle mass. They are not overtly obese but have not only high body fat but fat which is located in the crucial organs of metabolism, i.e., liver and pancreas. Once this occurs, the action of the insulin hormone becomes jeopardized, and blood sugar startsincreasing.”

“Indian physicians should urge patients to lose weight even when they are in normal body mass index (BMI) category to maintain body habitus at leaner side. This could prevent diabetes in those who do not have it yet, and blood sugar levels are better managed in patients with diabetes.” he added.

Credits: India Science Wire

What is Digital Health?

Put simply, the digitalization of healthcare means the integration of technology and robotics into the healthcare field. This is a platform for industrial growth as well as a revolution in the way we treat healthcare.

Tracking Health

Patient-friendly diagnostic and tracking devices allow patients to monitor their health parameters, like blood sugar levels, blood pressure, etc., much more efficiently. This enables them to be more in charge of their own well-being. This is not to say that technology is a replacement of the doctor, but rather an assistant for better medical decisions. The balance between doctor and patient can be less one-sided with the assistance of even their simplistic smartphone. Doctors will no longer have to utilize the Occam’s razor fallacy when diagnosing a patient, which says that if a patient has certain symptoms, the simplest condition fulfilling the symptoms must be the explanation. This has led to many misdiagnoses but with the help of effective and accurate digital analysis of the patient, the diagnosis can be done accurately. As improvements have been made in the field of diagnostic technology, these misdiagnoses have reduced by a large number, which clearly highlights the benefit of a system which can seamlessly integrate previous patient records with current monitored symptoms to assist the doctors in accurately analyzing and diagnosing a condition making it precise and personalized to improve therapy and also and patient adherence.

Technology

There are a plethora of interesting technological advancements that have been made in modern day medicine which can intrigue even the most skeptical person. As a by-product of these advances, point of care devices has been created for patients. Wearable skin sensors to analyze the electrolytes and biofluids that detect diabetes and cystic fibrosis, biosensors for diabetic patients which show their blood sugar straight onto their smartphone screen, relieving them of the pain of having to prick their fingers, conductive gels and patches which look like fashion accessories but are actually sophisticated technology, are just a few devices which have been created as advances, have been made to facilitate ease of healthcare. Mechanoacoustic skin sensors are being applied to quantitatively measure the rehabilitation in patients recovering from a stroke. Pacemakers were always important in cardiology, but their digitalization and remote monitoring have led them to last longer and respond more acutely to the patient’s needs. There are also implants that can electrically stimulate cardiac or brain tissues to treat conditions like irregular heartbeat, motor disorders, and cognitive impairments. The advantages for wearable devices are many, to monitor heart rates and training zones, analyzing exact calorie intake every day to better plan meals and snacks and tracking sleep. The aforementioned skin sensors that analyze biofluids are showing promising results in assessing stress levels as well. The ability to conduct microsurgery is also something requiring sophisticated hardware technologies and new imaging tools, but the outcome of the surgeries is far more accurate than anything that can be done by human hand.

Collaborative Decision Making

Collaborations between experts in computers, behavioral sciences, epidemiology medicine, engineering, and clinical research are necessary to make advances in the field. Other than devices, there are also various applicative cloud-based or internet technologies, which, and genome focused R&D, as well as alternative medical consultation making the benefits clear to the entire healthcare industry. Digital healthcare facilities can allow the growth of specialized knowledge among the medical community through advanced networks, technology-enabled peer-to-peer reviews, and emergency medical consultations during an emergency due to epidemics with mobile device laboratory capabilities and digital clinical trials.

Mobile Health

Mobile health is a significant part of the digital revolution and the apps can educate individuals and help them manage chronic diseases. Often when the information spreading via doctor-patient meetings falls short, the use of these mobile apps can allow the patients to interact directly with the doctors without any urgent scheduling required. This is not only cost efficient but convenient to the doctor as well as the patient. Mobile health also assists in disease surveillance, keeping track of outbreaks, and aids in supporting treatment.

Digital Medicine

But when it comes to the actual research happening, there are many fields in which creative growth is occurring, such as the research for targeted deliverance systems which can also reach the difficult to access internal organs and can even cross the blood brain barrier! There is research being done for automated healthcare for those patients who suffer from cognition and memory problems for long-term care. This field of research is being highly noticed with every new company start-up, and even the old pharmaceutical giants are noticing the developments in digital medicine.

The internet is the biggest platform to bring awareness to digitalization in the field of medicine. There are many popular websites on which there is a large penetration of awareness, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube with LinkedIn leading in presence of the key players, maybe not so much inactivity and utility. Everyone from individuals to big companies is pro-digital health, as it is more efficient, cost friendly, and provides benefits for everyone. North America is the leader in digital progress and is dominating the market because of the large number of players and increasing partnership between them. Government schemes, as well as quick improvements in the IT scene, allow large growth of this industry. As with any industry, it will eventually spread globally, uniting the world under a digital health banner.

Also Read:
Medical IoT: Future Of Connected Health 
Cyber4Healthcare: An Issue Of Today & Tomorrow
Social Media In Healthcare
DISHA – Need Of The Hour

Growth

As a model, however, this industry has not taken off to imaginable heights and there is a large scope for growth. Even though there is potential, the issue arises when there is no integration of the private and government sectors. This, however, is also due to high capital expenditure to develop the infrastructure in moderate economies and therefore cloud-based systems can be a possible solution. As more and more people use smartphones, the increase in demand for mobile apps provides an ample room for the digital technology bomb to light its fuse. When it is easy to bring about awareness, the actions taken due to that awareness will lead to a positive outcome. The rural populations access to healthcare services increases and offer them a large scope of point of care diagnostics, teleconsultation, and e-prescription facilities. This expansion in rural areas can lead to the increased pace of urbanization and therefore increase progress in any third world country. As the integration of these technologies happens with the standard healthcare system, the efficiency will increase, and this can help control the lack of healthcare in the ever-growing population, and make healthcare cheaper and more easily available. Eventually, given the right conditions, perhaps healthcare will be seen as a basic human right due to the strides in technology.

After understanding these benefits, it is irrefutable that digital healthcare can help bridge the gap between resource management and human labor in the medical field and is, therefore, a major key to our future. The world needs digital health, for a better and healthier tomorrow. There is a large scope for global market growth as well as India, and we must take initiative to ensure that the digital healthcare revolution becomes practicable. Accelerating the advancement of digital medicine will soon make it a way of life and we will then just call it medicine, not just a part of it.

About the Author

Dr. Deepti Saini is a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from AIIMS. After a decade of academic research and another half-decade spent in corporate research, she has ventured into entrepreneurship under the banner of “Protein Design” based in Bengaluru.

Diabetes, the plague of this generation, needs qualified support for patients to eliminate fear and preventable sufferings. Tele Health Help Desk offers precisely that solution- Patient relationship management that acts as a single point of contact for patients and their caretakers and provides a dedicated helpline to diabetes patients, ensuring that a hospital or Pharma Company’s brand value augments its reputation in the process. Innovation is the cornerstone of competitive advantage, and we are excited to change the old approach. Will you be a forerunner?

Diabetes is a modern day dragon that is threatening to affect a big section of the masses of the present century. The numbers are stunning beyond belief: Nearly 50 million suffer from the deadly lifestyle disease. Average cost of treatment of each diabetic patient is approximately Rs. 6000 a year, as per IDF Atlas, 2014. And this cost does not include any cost associated with more serious complications like diabetes foot, kidney and eye disease due to diabetes.

With the huge number of diabetes patients- 50 million or 5 crores- the combined colossal amount makes a big dent in any country’s economy, fragile as it is due to continuous recession around the globe.

Besides expenditure, there is a big shortage of trained workforce at all levels, especially the lowest and middle rung of the society. According to recent studies, underprivileged sections of society in urban ghettos are particularly vulnerable, if not more than as much as the rising classes.

The lack of specialized human resources is proving a major deterrent in fighting the monster and preventing major losses like diabetic nephropathy, cardiac complications and diabetic retinopathy.

Picture the scenario outside a health facility, endocrinologists are struggling to muddle through the thronging flock of patients. The benches outside the room are all crammed to capacity, the cacophony increasing with each passing minute. Waiting is never supposed to give any kind of pleasure; it is always a compromise of the poor. Challenge is defined thus. Even a willing and able doctor will be exasperated with so much to do in so little time.

So, how can the healthcare system meet this need?

First and foremost, technology should be used to offer prevention as well as treatment of diabetes. The age old adage of cure being an after-thought should be the primary motive for preferring prevention as its go-to strategy.

Experienced and well equipped tele-health companies can play a critical role by collaborating with medical institutions and the government for proactive tele health solutions that would minimize hospital visits as well as create an empathetic environment for patients to come back to, via the telephone of course!

There are a few organizations that specialize in the sphere of empathy calls and history tracking. Their tele health division is well respected for employing state of the art software that helps in tracking every single detail of all the patients and in the same time helps in issuing alerts and emergencies regarding patients.

The positive message of the services—helping patients adapt to daily life without too many restraints —is the key to success.

If we have a senior citizen diabetic whose blood sugar shot up to 300, because she couldn’t resist her grandson’s birthday cake, empathy urges us to accept what has occurred, and respond, “What’s life without celebrations and a little piece of cake!”

Bringing patients within your desired goalposts by teaching them to build their diet around a family event is more realistic than preaching the more stern and unwelcoming, “Never eat dessert.”

The challenge before hospitals is to develop a centralized function to act as the single point of contact for the end-users (patients) who require assistance for resolution of problems, concerns, question and requests. The need of the hour is a Dedicated Empathetic Helpdesk for Hospitals that would help your facility build a strong bond and a stronger brand with your customers – Patients and Prospects- before and after they are in your premises. Such improved communications, based on a predictive marketing model, result in building and sustaining trust in your facility, a crucial task in the healthcare business.

Our tele health help desk has made significant positive changes by improving customer satisfaction and exceeding performance targets. One of our clients has authorized us to disclose their figures:

1. Operational Savings of Rs. 22 lakh annually.
2. Patient retention has increased by a sizeable 8%.
3. Higher level of customer satisfaction.

It’s going to be increasingly important for you to know what’s happening when patients leave your facility.

A handful of futuristic companies, led by charismatic pioneers are engaged in providing helpdesk services to medical institutions that act as the preferred medium of interaction between them and their patients. An explainer video presentation that describes tele health services and benefits thereof can open your mind to exciting new possibilities of retaining patients and providing care for them better than ever before. You can also watch the video directly on YouTube at the URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c57rTr-l64

The process of proactive patient relationship management is still in a nascent stage in India. Change is beckoning you, the risk-taker and innovator. Today is a good day to do that, no?

Want to write for InnoHEALTH? send us your article at  magazine@innovatiocuris.com

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