News

GlucoStabilizer Insulin Dosing Software Selected by UVa

to Support $25 Million NIH Grant to Study Diabetic Strokes

August 17, 2011 - Charlottesville, VA - The University of Virginia has received a $25 million grant that could lead to breakthroughs for diabetic stroke patients. The grant, from the National Institutes of Health, provides money for UVa to lead a 56-center nationwide clinical trial of a new treatment for acute stroke victims with hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar. According to Karen Johnston, chair of the UVa Department of Neurology and principal investigator of the study, the new treatment applies to diabetic stroke victims. “The people who will be eligible for this research will be hyperglycemic acute stroke patients,” Johnston said. “All or nearly all will have diabetes.”

 

The new treatment involves giving patients an insulin IV starting within 12 hours of a stroke for up to three days. The amount of insulin will be determined using MAS Informatics GlucoStabilizer insulin dosing software, which calculates the IV dose based on the patient’s current glucose reading and instructs the caregiver to adjust the IV drip accordingly. GlucoStabilizer was selected for use in the study based on its performance and widely used acceptance in critical care settings throughout the country, as well as its unique computer networking capability. more >


Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2010 Dec 29. [Epub ahead of print]

The Economics of Glycemic Control in the ICU in the United States

Scurlock C, Raikhelkar J, Mechanick JI.

 

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Currently the USA has an aging population, with increasing deficits and a healthcare system that most would agree is in need of repair. Finding ways to curtail costs is urgently needed. Attention to glycemic control and metabolic care offers a cost-effective method of treatment to reduce complications.

 

RECENT FINDINGS: Healthcare-related expenses occupy an expanding portion of gross domestic product in the US and are a driver of the deficit. Despite all of this spending, the US receives average marks on outcomes and is not obtaining value in its healthcare. Any movements toward healthcare reform must focus on improving outcomes per healthcare dollar spent, and increasing value. The Affordable Care Act will place greater emphasis on preventing complications and reducing hospital-acquired infections. The original Leuven trial demonstrated that proper implementation of glycemic control can reduce morbidity and mortality. More recent studies have shown that there is a cost-benefit to glycemic control as well, through reduction of hospital stay and prevention of complications. On the basis of these changes, physicians who practice metabolic care and provide glycemic control are well positioned to add value in this era of healthcare reform.

 

SUMMARY: Glycemic control is inherently valuable in the care of ICU patients as it decreases infectious complications, reduces lengths of stay, and has a positive effect on morbidity and mortality. Further studies should be completed to delineate the exact amount of cost-savings that can be obtained by proper implementation of glycemic control in the ICU. more


The Relationship between Hyperglycemia and Surgical Site Infection

Study Suggests Potential Glycemic Target
AACC Clinical Laboratory Strategies, by Genna Rollins
Numerous studies have examined the impact of tight glycemic control in different populations of hospitalized patients, with varying results. Some have found benefits such as reduced surgical site infections (SSI), while others have reported harms like increased mortality. Now, new research examines the impact of perioperative hyperglycemia on the incidence of SSI in general and vascular surgery patients. This issue of Strategies explores those findings. NOTE: viewing the rest of this article requires AACC membership
more >


Tight Glycemic Control: What Do We Really Know, and What Should We Expect?

Stanley A Nasraway Jr and Rishi Rattan

Tight glycemic control has engendered large numbers of investigations, with conflicting results. The world has largely embraced intensive insulin as a practice, but applies this therapy with great variability in the manner of glucose control and measurement. The present commentary reviews what we actually know with certainty from this vast sea of literature, and what we can expect looking forward. more >


Treating Americans With Diabetes Cost Hospitals $83 Billion

U.S. hospitals spent $83 billion in 2008 caring for people with diabetes, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In that year, nearly one of every five hospitalizations involved a person with diabetes. This amount is 23 percent of what hospitals spent overall to treat all conditions in 2008. The expenditures included costs associated with more than 540,000 hospital stays specifically for diabetes and roughly 7.2 million stays for patients who had other conditions in addition to diabetes. For example, a person with diabetes may be admitted primarily for heart disease, kidney damage, infection, or foot or leg amputation. Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Read more >


Intensive nursing work schedules and the risk of hypoglycaemia in critically ill patients who are receiving intravenous insulin
Nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU) commonly work frequent 12 h shifts, potentially leading to fatigue and reduced vigilance. The authors hypothesised that rates of hypoglycaemia in patients receiving an insulin infusion would be associated with the intensity of work of the bedside nurse in the preceding 72 h. more >

Lourdes Offers GlucoStabilizer Technology to Patients  

Lourdes Diabetes Center offers the GlucoStabilizer, the latest in diabetes management technology to our inpatients. The GlucoStabilizer is a computerized calculation software program used by nurses and doctors to quickly and accurately calculate the dosage of intravenous insulin administered to patients with elevated or low levels of blood glucose. This technology computerizes the complex calculations used to determine the proper IV insulin dosage and provides automated patient reports.  This process improves a patients glucose control, saves critical staff time and resources by doing the calculations allowing for nurses to have more time to provide care at the patients bedside, and reduces potentially dangerous dosing calculation errors.


Tufts NEMC, Moses Cone and Salina Regional Choose GlucoStabilizer
Charlottesville, VA - Medical Decisions Network (MDN) is pleased to announce that Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston, MA; Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro, NC; and Salina Regional Medical Center, Salina, KS hospitals have implemented the company’s GlucoStabilizer insulin dosing software.


Sloan-Kettering, St. Joseph's and Odessa Regional Choose GlucoStabilizer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - Medical Decisions Network (MDN) is pleased to announce that Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa, FL; and Odessa Regional Hospital, Odessa, TX hospitals have implemented the company’s GlucoStabilizer insulin dosing software.


GlucoStabilizer™ Introduces 1st to Market ADT Interface
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, June 5, 2008 - Medical Decisions Network is pleased to announce the release of the Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) interface to its GlucoStabilizer™ insulin dosing system. This represents the first time a system of this kind can automatically populate demographic data from the hospital’s existing ADT system. GlucoStabilizer’s ADT interface eliminates the need for manual entry of patient demographic data thus reducing the chances of clerical error and saving valuable nursing time. Carol Moran, RN, BSN, CDE of United Health Services notes, “The GlucoStabilizer has been like magic in controlling glucose levels in our patients and adding ADT interface ability is a real step forward in automating all aspects of medical record charting.” The GlucoStabilizer is an FDA cleared system used by hospital nurses to quickly and accurately calculate the dosage of intravenous insulin administered to patients with elevated levels of blood glucose, the simple form of sugar the body converts to energy for survival.


FDA Clears GlucoStabilizer® Intravenous Insulin Dosing Software
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, October 17, 2007 – Medical Decisions Network (MDN) announces Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance for the company’s GlucoStabilizer IV Insulin Dosing Software. The GlucoStabilizer software is used by hospital nurses to quickly and accurately calculate the dosage of intravenous insulin administered to patients with elevated levels of blood glucose, the simple form of sugar the body converts to energy for survival. More and more hospitals are adopting measures to control elevated glucose levels (commonly referred to as diabetes or hyperglycemia) in critical care units because studies have shown a resulting marked improvement in patient outcomes.

These improvements include reduced mortality (death), length of stay, rate of infection, and a variety of other risks. According to Gary Stouder, MD, at Indiana’s Hancock Regional Hospital, "Based on what we’ve seen so far, by automating our insulin dosing protocol with the GlucoStabilizer software, we expect to see a decrease in length of stay of 1 day and up to a 50% decrease in mortality in our hyperglycemic ICU patients."

Currently, hospitals rely on printed procedures to calculate IV insulin dosage based on hyperglycemic patients’ varying glucose levels. More frequent glucose tests – as many as one or more per hour for tightly controlled ICU patients – burden the already overextended nurses. And referring to complicated paper protocols stresses clinical staff even more. Computerizing these calculations and providing automated patient reports may not only improve glucose control and save critical time and resources, but may reduce potentially dangerous dosing calculation errors as well.

The health benefits of this technology are hard to resist: GlucoStabilizer users have seen a stark reduction in the incidence of hypoglycemia, a potentially life-threatening severe drop in blood glucose. And it takes significantly less time to get a patient out of the danger zone and into the target glucose range1.

According to Greg Menke, Medical Decisions Network’s CEO, “We’ve seen technology make sweeping improvements in the quality and cost of healthcare. Our GlucoStabilizer Computerized Insulin Dosing Software is another major contributor to these improvements because it gives hospital clinicians the power to control hyperglycemia, a huge and growing health and cost burden in this country.”

The GlucoStabilizer is a networked application, accessible from any computer on a hospital’s network. This means that clinicians can continue a patient’s infusion progress even when the patient is moved to a new unit.

“This FDA 510(k) clearance will be important for clinical administrators who are considering the move to this beneficial technology and feel more comfortable with FDA’s nod,” says Menke. “It’s an important step for all of us.”


Medical Decisions Network (MDN) and Healthways, Inc. agree to introduce network-based insulin dosing calculator to Healthways hospital customers
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA and NASHVILLE, TN – March 22, 2007 – Medical Decisions Network (MDN), providing a total solution for tight glycemic control in hospitals, from program formulation to national benchmarking, and Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY), the market leader in high-impact Health and Care SupportSM services, today agreed to introduce the GlucoStabilizer™, a network-based insulin dosing calculator, to Healthways hospital customers to optimize blood glucose control in hospitalized patients.For more than 25 years Healthways has been the industry’s leading diabetes care management company, working closely with hospitals, physicians and caregivers to improve the quality of care for hundreds of thousands of patients each year. The decision to partner with GlucoStabilizer comes from a number of studies that suggest one of the key reasons for hypoglycemia to occur in an ICU setting with IV insulin is the lack of timely blood glucose testing and titration of insulin dose.1,2,3

The GlucoStabilizer provides on-site measurement of glucose and automatically calculates the necessary IV insulin drip adjustments based on a selected protocol. For added safety, after a nurse enters a current glucose reading, the system prompts them to enter the reading a second time. A visual and audible notification alarm then reminds nurses when the next reading is due.
Automating calculations enables nurses to rapidly and confidently manage hyper and hypoglycemia across a variety of patient populations. And because the GlucoStabilizer is a network-based application, it’s accessible from any PC connected to the hospital intranet.Hospital customers implementing Healthways diabetes management solutions have reduced average length of stay and ICU days for patients with diabetes. In addition to reducing costs, hospitals have seen improved clinical outcomes, such as reduced mortality, infection rates, and incidences of hyperglycemia/hypoglycemia.

References
1.Krinsley, JS MD, FCCP; Kleinpell, RM, PhD, RN, FCCM. Targeting Improvements in the ICU: Challenges and Solutions. Critical Connections, February 2005, Vol. 4, No. 1.
2.Krinsley JS. The Effect of an Intensive Glucose Management Protocol on the Mortality of Critically Ill Adult Patients, Mayo Clinic Proc. 2004; 79:992-1000.
3.Van den Berghe G. Tight Blood Glucose Control with Insulin in “Real-Life” Intensive Care, Mayo Clinic Proc. 2004; 79:977-978.

About Healthways
Healthways is the leading provider of specialized, comprehensive Health and Care SupportSM solutions to help millions of people maintain or improve their health and, as a result, reduce overall healthcare costs. Healthways' programs are designed to help healthy individuals stay healthy, mitigate and slow the progression of disease associated with family or lifestyle risk factors and promote the best possible health for those already affected by disease. Our proven, evidence-based programs provide highly specific and personalized interventions for each individual in a population, irrespective of age or health status, and are delivered to consumers by phone, mail, internet and face-to-face interactions, both domestically and internationally. Healthways also provides a national, fully accredited complementary and alternative Health Provider Network, offering convenient access to individuals who seek health services outside of, and in conjunction with, the traditional healthcare system. For more information, please visit www.healthways.com

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