Health Goes High-Tech

April 23, 2008 — -- In 2006, 14-year-old Glenn Leinart's family feared a bout with the flu was about to kill him.

Within three months, "he lost 50 pounds, chugged gallons of water, and was constantly going to the bathroom," remembers his mother Della Leinart, who was pregnant with twins at the time.

Leinart was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, a chronic disease in which the pancreas stops producing insulin that is used to convert sugars into glucose. Normally, the glucose would fuel the body's cells in a healthy person. Unlike the more common Type 2, which is brought on by obesity, Type 1 has a sudden and mysterious onset -- and there is no cure.

"They told me that they think certain people are predisposed genetically to getting it and then when you get a virus the antibodies attack your pancreas, but they really don't know," Leinart said.

Doctors knew that Leinart would have to monitor what he ate at all times, measure his blood sugar by pricking his finger five to 10 times a day and use a syringe to inject insulin now necessary for him to process the sugars and starches in food.

Maintaining proper blood sugar levels is an arduous process, especially tough for children who may forget to brush their teeth or get their report card signed; when they forget to measure their blood sugar levels, however, the consequences can be life threatening.

Extreme high and low levels in the short run lead to confusion and, if not caught in time, can cause a coma. Long term extremes lead to sight loss, kidney failure, heart disease, and loss of sensation in extremities.

Luckily, Leinart got an unexpected high-tech helper: his cell phone.

Most people don't leave the house without their cell phones, which gave tech startup Confidant an idea: Use mobile phones as powerful databases and liaison to health care professionals for patients with chronic diseases.

"After you start dealing with it you realize it really stinks. You need to incorporate it into your routine. Diet and exercise now become life and death," Leinart said. "You have to develop a positive attitude or it will take you over. You realize quickly it's not going to go away."

Confidant's program is part record keeper and part motivator. The glucose meters that diabetics use can communicate wirelessly with Bluetooth enabled phones which in turn can send the data to a database where doctors and nurses can keep an eye on a patient's readings.