Glooko, T1D Exchange partner on data

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Connecting lifestyle data from personal devices with clinical data from electronic health records will offer a fuller understanding of patients with Type 1 diabetes and, ultimately, lead to better treatment, says Russ Johannesson, CEO of Glooko.

“We think this is really going to be valuable in enhancing their effort and improving research,” he said. “The ability to see all of this data in context is relatively new.”

Glooko recently partnered with the T1D Exchange on its Quality Improvement Collaborative, which will use Glooko's diabetes management platform to incorporate patient-generated data from diabetes devices, including insulin pumps, CGMs and glucometers, with health records. The QIC researches how more than 30,000 patients at 10 leading diabetes clinics manage their diabetes.

The partnership creates a more holistic view of the patient, says Johannesson.

“You've got to be able to merge the episodic view of an EHR with the everyday view of what's happening in everyday life,” he said. “Patients don't only need to worry about these things when they see the doctor. Whether it's average blood glucose or activity tracking or nutrition, it's constant monitoring and managing.”

Because patients are already using the technology in every day life, collecting that data is easier, unlike with a more traditional research study model, says Johannesson. And, with the advances in technology putting so much more of disease management in the patient's hand, there's been a leap in the volume of data available.

“If you think about the volume in blood glucose readings coming in previously from people using meters to test a couple of times a day and now CGMs are tracking it on a continuous basis, it's just a constant volume of readings and data,” he said. “That needs to be managed and analyzed so they can create useful information and actionable intelligence out of that. We feel privileged to be at the intersection between the patient and the provider.”