Diabetes & Children - A Life without Restrictions

The diagnosis of "diabetes" is a serious blow for any patient. But when parents are given this diagnosis for their child, at first their whole world falls apart. The number of children with diabetes is constantly growing, with type 1 in particular spreading quickly. Even young children and infants are affected by this incurable illness. Blood glucose must be measured every day, usually several times a day. Insulin must be injected and diet must be adjusted or very closely monitored. All of this makes the care of children and young people with diabetes extremely challenging, especially for parents, but also for medical professionals and for the patients themselves.

Diabetes Management

Modern telemedical diabetes management systems enable parents and specialists to provide better support for children with diabetes in their everyday life, without having to constantly supervise them. Modern blood glucose monitoring and diabetes management systems today make it possible to automatically transfer the measured blood glucose value via the child’s cell phone to a telemedical online record, which is thus automatically updated.
All important values can be viewed there, such as meals, activities, insulin administration, and other data, which can also be entered via the cell phone or internet portal. This information is displayed in graphical form and provides a clear overview for parents, support persons, and doctors who have access to the child’s account.

Real-time monitoring and alarm

Parents, support persons, or doctors can also be informed about all measurements in real time. In the event of unusual values, it is also possible to for an alarm to be sent by text message, e-mail, or fax, which enables a fast reaction to hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. The automatic real-time transmission creates complete blood glucose documentation, which enables parents to support young patients in their everyday lives without having to constantly supervise them. Thanks to the precise and complete automatic updating of the record, doctors, and support persons are able to work out the most precise possible diagnoses and treatment options and thus improve the attitude to life of the child with diabetes and to allow them to lead a "normal" life.

Vital Data at a Glance

As it is important with diabetics and especially children with diabetes to keep track of blood pressure, weight, and other vital data, the large field of telehealth/telemedicine is ensuring that other devices, such as blood glucose meters and body scales also transfer their measured data directly to the cell phone via a Bluetooth interface and from there to the patient’s secure online record. The updating of the record is thus greatly simplified for the patient. No matter whether the patient is a child or an adult, the doctor or diabetologist receives a complete list and overview and, above all, precise patient values, which can be viewed at any time on a PC at home or at his or her practice.

The Savings Factor

For the health insurance funds, for which prevention is already an important issue and which see that lots of money can be saved through the avoidance of secondary diabetes illnesses, the savings factor of such systems will quickly become apparent. This is because children with diabetes do not, as would normally be the case, need to come to the diabetologist’s office once every quarter, instead they may only need to come once or twice a year. The doctor receives a much better and more precise overview of the metabolic status of the child with diabetes and can support them and help them adjust better.