Big sites enter into diabetes monitoring market

Companies offer millions of patients the means to manage chronic conditions over the Internet.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Sept. 22/29, 2003.

Two major Internet portals are eyeing remote monitoring services to let millions of patients monitor chronic conditions online for a monthly fee.

In August, Yahoo Inc. and iMetrikus Inc. launched a service that diabetics can use to track blood sugar levels. The Yahoo Web site creates an "action plan" based on guidelines from the American Diabetes Assn. and tells users how they stack up, and whether they need to consult doctors, said Rose Higgins, RN, iMetrikus' senior vice president. Users pay $4.95 a month or $39.95 a year and can authorize their doctors and other clinicians to access their data electronically.

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Yahoo, which will expand the service to other chronic conditions by the end of the year, soon will face competition from other parties.

Elmwood Park, N.J.-based WebMD Corp. this month plans to launch a fee-based service targeting patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions, said Jennifer Meyer, a company spokeswoman.

The two portals also will compete with Medem. San Francisco-based Medem, partly owned by the AMA, is marketing its secure messaging network to insurers as a communication vehicle for their online disease-management activities. So far, Medem has signed up one insurer, ConnectiCare.

In October, the Farmington, Conn., company will begin a yearlong online diabetes management research project. Based on those results, ConnectiCare may reimburse doctors for remote monitoring, said Paul Bluestein, MD, the insurer's chief medical officer.

Many in the industry think remote monitoring can potentially lower health care costs because patients with chronic illnesses account for a disproportionate chunk of overall costs. But few doctors use the technology because insurers generally don't reimburse for remote monitoring.

Also, though some doctors think the technology is promising, they have reservations. "Often the choices a patient makes as to when they choose to check [glucose levels] may not be representative of what is going on the rest of the day," said Richard Hellman, MD, an endocrinologist in Kansas City, Mo.