Cerner is expanding its healthcare strategy through a partnership with Livongo Health aimed at making diabetes screening and patient self-management more effective and proactive.
The electronic health records company and mHealth platform vendor have signed a multi-year deal in which Cerner clients' diabetes data can be shared in near-real time via Livongo's technology with a patient's care team and physicians, according to a Health Data Management article.
Livongo's blood glucose meter device assesses levels and shares data with care providers so any irregularities can be addressed immediately. That's a much quicker approach compared to a traditional office appointment scenario, according to the article.
"This is the right program at the right time to empower our clients and their patients with the real-time information they need to help effectively manage and improve their health," Zane Burke, president of Cerner, told Health Data Management.
The news comes on the heels of Cerner's recently announced partnership with Apple. In late September, Cerner and athenahealth joined with Apple's HealthKit and are developing apps aimed at helping patients with chronic illness and fostering data sharing between care givers and patients.
The collaboration comes amid a wave of mHealth wearable devices hitting the market, from smartphone screens analyzing results in blood treatment scenarios and disease management coaching devices to a wearable, automated bionic pancreas built using an iPhone 4S and a G4 Platinum continuous glucose monitor and a software algorithm.
A study last spring revealed mobile monitoring of diabetic employees can save more than $3,000 a year in healthcare costs, half of the average annual medical insurance cost for workers diagnosed with diabetes.
Cerner and Livongo say their new mHealth partnership will drive faster medical intervention as clinicians will have patient data and insight faster as health issues crop up in the treatment of diabetes, according to the article.
For more information:
- read the Health Data Management article
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