Press

Novel Technology Shows Promise in Diabetes Management

Medscape Medical News, February 26, 2007 (Miami)

Thomas S. May, MA

"The 'Confidant System' is a cell phone-based biometric system for real-time health coaching," lead investigator David Katz, MD, MPH, told Medscape. "The purpose of our study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using the Confidant System to assist with diabetes self-care management in a clinic population, as evidenced by successful implementation, ease of use, and patient and clinician satisfaction with the system," he said. Dr. Katz is public health director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"This technology, which is being improved every week, is perhaps a major breakthrough in enabling the patient with chronic illness to gain a measure of informational control and immediacy of feedback and reinforcement that has been lacking in other computer-assisted means of promoting effective disease management in these populations," according to Gordon DeFriese, PhD, professor emeritus of social medicine and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.