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Kaiser, diabetes group team up for online project

The proposed Internet site will let diabetics forecast their health by answering a set of questions.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. July 14, 2003.

The American Diabetes Assn. and Kaiser Permanente are developing a Web site that will let diabetics virtually predict their diabetic future, arming patients, the developers hope, with information that can be used to make better health care decisions.

The site, which will be free and is expected to become available within two years, will ask those with and at risk of developing diabetes to answer a comprehensive set of questions relating to age, sex, height, race, body mass index, glucose count, cholesterol level, family history, and medication types and dosage.

Based on the answers, Archimedes, a computer modeling software, will simulate what will likely happen to individual users within whatever time frame the users select, said Richard Kahn, PhD, chief scientific and medical officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based American Diabetes Assn.

The idea is that after patients see what the future holds for them, they can change variables and use the computer software to learn what steps they can take to live healthier and longer lives, Dr. Kahn said.

That's because Archimedes models the outcomes physicians and patients can expect from different treatment options, said David Eddy, MD, an adviser to Kaiser Permanente and co-developer of the predictive software program.

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