WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In spite of greater than 80 medications currently available in the U.S. to treat diabetes, less than half of the estimated 22 million people prescribed one or more are maintaining blood sugar levels within the acceptable range.(1-3) The consequences not only impact health status and quality of life, they add to the growing economic burden of diabetes estimated in 2017 at $327 billion.(3) With multiple patent allowances for its novel Therapy Advisor® software-as-a-medical-device and active engagement in the FDA 510(k) process, Glytec is poised to improve these clinical and financial outcomes by helping providers more easily and efficaciously select and dose all varieties of diabetes medications. No solution of like kind is currently available, Therapy Advisor® will be the first.
Therapy Advisor® will expand the breadth of Glytec's proprietary eGlycemic Management System®, or eGMS®, a provider-directed enterprise solution for diabetes therapy management and medication optimization that serves patients across the entire continuum of care: inpatient, outpatient and virtual settings.
“For primary care providers, diabetes can be an extremely challenging condition to manage. When it comes to diabetes medications, there are literally tens of thousands of possible combinations. Choosing what’s best for any one patient is a daunting task,” says Glytec’s chief medical officer and diabetologist, Andrew Rhinehart, MD, FACP, FACE, CDE, BC-ADM. “With Therapy Advisor®, providers will have evidence-based guidance on which diabetes medications are most likely to be successful for a patient, with consideration given to relevant clinical variables and personal preferences, including affordability. When appropriate, this can be used for purposes of patient engagement and shared decision-making.”
The American Diabetes Association reports that an estimated $31 billion is spent annually on insulin and other antidiabetic agents.(3) Determining the best medication or combination of medications for a patient with diabetes can be a months-long process of trial and error, which on a national scale translates to billions of dollars in wasted pharmaceutical expense. Hospitals, health systems and ACOs with value-based and alternative reimbursement contracts will have tremendous difficulty preserving already-slim margins if action is not taken to reverse course. The same is true for health plans.
“Therapy Advisor® will remove the guesswork and make it much simpler for providers,” explains Rhinehart, “and with an abundance of evidence indicating wide variation in the choice and sequence of diabetes medications, Therapy Advisor® will help providers overcome therapeutic inertia and allow them to achieve the kind of standardization and personalization that drives high-quality, high-reliability care and better outcomes.”
Therapy Advisor® also promises to deliver a far better patient experience. Glytec’s head of research and development, Robby Booth, explains: “Patients will sometimes change the frequency or dose of their diabetes medications because they’re just not getting good results. Or, they may not fill one or more of their scripts because the prescribed regimen is not well-tailored to their lifestyle. We’ve designed Therapy Advisor® to account not only for demographic and clinical data, such as age, renal state, BMI, type of diabetes and A1C, but also for experiential data that factors in specific patient preferences. If a patient is on a weight loss program, for example, Therapy Advisor® will allow for the exclusion of medications with known side effects of weight gain. Or, if a patient has a cognitive impairment, such as dementia, Therapy Advisor® will allow for the exclusion of a more complex regimen that could prove confusing. Through a process of directed questioning, Therapy Advisor® will lead the provider to two treatment alternatives and will specify the pros and cons of each. This will truly be a game changer.”
Therapy Advisor® incorporates guidelines authored by the American Diabetes Association, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American College of Endocrinology, and European Association for the Study of Diabetes.(4-6) In addition to formulating recommendations on medication type, dose and frequency for any one or more insulin and non-insulin options, Therapy Advisor® will also help facilitate the intensification and deintensification of medication regimens, including transitions on and off of insulin.
“Patients who aren't helped by the medications they’ve been prescribed ultimately consume more healthcare resources and incur significantly higher healthcare costs,” Rhinehart adds. “These patients are hospitalized more often, have more trips to emergency departments and urgent care centers, and develop more concomitant conditions. They deserve better. Therapy Advisor® is positioned to support our nation’s providers in delivering safer, more efficacious diabetes care, and the cost savings will follow.”
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About Glytec
Founded in 2006, Glytec is the pioneer of
digital therapeutics, improving the lives of people with diabetes by
making insulin a more effective and accessible option for millions
unable to achieve their treatment goals. The company’s patented
eGlycemic Management System® is the only FDA-cleared
software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) platform to enable the mass
personalization of insulin across the continuum of care: inpatient,
outpatient and virtual settings alike. Glytec offers several
comprehensive programs combining evidence-based decision support
technologies with expert professional services proven to aid providers
in achieving best practices and standardization while reducing
hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, A1C, readmissions, length of stay and cost.
The company has offices in Waltham, Massachusetts and Greenville, South
Carolina. For more information visit www.glytecsystems.com.
