Livongo Health has been named an accredited diabetes education program by the American Association of Diabetes Educators, making it the first online/telehealth program of its kind to achieve this prestigious accreditation status. The Chicago-based digital health company is reinventing the way health is managed by combining technology, real-time information, and human support to make life easier, starting with diabetes.
“I believe others will follow suit as I think it is the wave of the future to deliver personalized, context-sensitive diabetes education and support in the future,” said AADE President Deborah Greenwood.
AADE is the only organization exclusively dedicated to diabetes education, and they are one of two organizations authorized by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine whether diabetes education programs meet required standards. To date, they have certified 742 programs across the United States.
Livongo Diabetes Management Program Overview
Livongo Health’s approach to diabetes management is guided by three simple principles:
1. people with diabetes want to spend less time on their condition;
2. people who treat diabetes want less data and more, better, real-time information so they can help;
3. payers – including healthcare companies, employers and, increasingly, all of us – want to spend less
It is the first diabetes management program targeted to people with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes is completely mobile, digital and personalized to the user. It allows people with diabetes to effectively manage important aspects of their illness on their own. It also allows them to easily keep their family members and care team informed in real-time.
Each Livongo for Diabetes user receives the company’s In Touch® blood glucose smartmeter, a proprietary mobile device that is the first cellular-enabled, two-way interactive blood glucose meter. The device captures a user’s biometric data and uploads it to a cloud-based inference engine where historical data, clinical rules and predictive modeling are used to convert it into useable information and support that is instantly returned back to the person with diabetes.
This data can also be shared with anyone in the user’s family or care team, including a Livongo Certified Diabetes Educator, who can provide real-time feedback and assistance via push notification, text, email or phone. The Livongo program offers unlimited test strips at no extra charge and removes daily hassles like hand-written logbooks, having to connect a traditional glucose meter to a computer with a cable and re-ordering supplies.
“Trends show that diabetes education is moving out of the hospital and into the community, so AADE’s accreditation program was created, in part, to encourage diabetes education where the patient is seeking care,” said Leslie E. Kolb, RN, BSN, MBA, Program Director, Diabetes Education Accreditation Program. “Livongo Health is exactly the type of program we envisioned when we set up our accreditation program in 2009.”
