Launch Of The First Wireless Hospital Blood Glucose Meter

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics;  Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 22 Jul 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Roche Diagnostics announced yesterday the launch of the first wireless hospital blood glucose meter.1 The Accu-Chek Inform II system, which sends blood glucose results, patient and operator information to the hospital's HIS or LIS through a data manager, is the successor to the #1 selling Accu-Chek Inform meter2.

For point of care coordinators, nurses and ICU personnel the task of keeping control of their patients' blood glucose level becomes more challenging due to the raising number of glucose tests performed in hospitals. One reason is due to the increasing epidemic of diabetes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects an increase of the global prevalence of diabetes by 110 % over the next decades, which means that 366 million people will suffer from Diabetes in 2030. Secondly, the implementation of TGC (tight glycemic control) protocols raises the number of measurements and complexity of data processing.

Due to the savings in workflow and better patient safety, wireless patient monitoring in the healthcare industry is expected to grow at a steady rate in the future. According to surveys in the United States more than 90 percent of medium sized and large hospitals either currently use wireless technology or have plans to adopt wireless technology in the future.3

While regulatory pressure from healthcare authorities is demanding that blood glucose testing is properly documented and monitored through quality control checks, the Accu-Chek Inform II system ensures that the right test is done on the right patient at the right time. Using the cobas IT 1000 data manager system, the real time verification of the patients' identity at the bedside reflects the strong need for error prevention in point of care testing.

"Integrating point of care devices and the hospital IT network is a designated goal of Roche", said Dirk Ehlers, Head of Roche Professional Diagnostics. "Transferring the blood glucose information into the medical record quickly saves time for patient care and reduces costs."

Notes:

References:

1) First meter that wirelessly sends data directly to the hospital access point

2) The Accuchek Inform is the #1 selling device among "connected" (= connection to an IT data manager system) hospital blood glucose meters. Roche IVD Market Book 2007

3) Roche Market Research

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Group employs about 79,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.roche.com.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are legally protected by law.

Source:
Thomas Klein, MD, MSc
Roche Diagnostics Ltd.
Forrenstrasse
CH-6343 Rotkreuz
Switzerland
http://www.roche-rotkreuz.com