Vietnam is experiencing the fastest growing rate of diabetes in Southeast Asia, yet patients must travel far to reach hospitals for treatment and follow-up.

To address that problem, Israeli digital diabetes platform provider GlucoMe of Yarkona has begun a pilot collaboration with Merck KGaA of Germany to evaluate GlucoMe’s digital diabetes platform across five Vietnamese hospitals, in order to compare it to the current standard of care.

Patients will use GlucoMe’s wireless blood-glucose monitor to measure their blood sugar levels at home. The clinical data will be synced through GlucoMe’s mobile app and analyzed by GlucoMe’s Digital Diabetes Clinic and its Control Tower alert system. This will enable medical professionals to monitor their patients continuously and intervene quickly when necessary.

Of Vietnam’s 92.7 million population, around 5 million (5.4%) have been diagnosed with diabetes.

“The collaboration announced today will evaluate the advantages and acceptance of GlucoMe’s digital diabetes care system in a country with a vast diabetes patient population, which today faces a significant lack of resources to effectively manage their condition,” said Daniel Ruggiero, global head of diabetes strategy at Merck’s biopharma business.

“We have been impressed by the connectivity and simplicity of GlucoMe’s solution, allowing physicians to make data-driven decisions while providing patients with stripped down, easy-to-use devices that are automatically connected to their smartphones,” Ruggiero said.

GlucoMe CEO Yiftah Ben-Aharon noted that GlucoMe’s solution was introduced in India and in Central America earlier this year. “We intend to work our way around the world with the goal of modernizing diabetes care for the benefit of patients, medical teams and payers.”

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c ]