中文 Chinese
The case of Mr. Ma, a busy executive of a technology company who cares for an elderly father, is an example of technology and healthcare working together to improve patient care. Mr. Ma recently accompanied his father to the hospital for a regular checkup. Upon doctor’s recommendation, Mr. Ma’s aging father was sent back home with a CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) device. This device allowed the family and medical staff to monitor the patient’s blood sugar changes 24/7. Additionally, the data gave the medical staff critical information to design a customized approach and advise him on his food intake, exercise regiment, as well as sleep and rest recommendations. Moreover, the doctors were able to modify his medication and provide the same level of care as if the patient was monitored within a hospital setting. This solution reduced stress on the family care givers and empowered medical staff to make more timely and accurate treatment recommendations.
Cassia Networks works with hospitals to provide an integrated approach. In addition to using the hospital’s professional subcutaneous CGM equipment, patients are equipped with the Cassia Networks M1000 Bluetooth gateway which allows for monitoring the blood glucose levels from the comfort of their homes. M1000 is a mini device about the size of a mobile phone that automatically transmits blood glucose data back to the hospital management platform. The gateway is simple to use, it can be placed on a table at home and can be fueled by the home power supply. In case you need to leave your home, a power bank can be used to supply power to M1000 for 48 hours so that the blood glucose monitoring goes uninterrupted. Moreover, this solution is both convenient and low cost.
“The biggest significance of M1000 is in ability to maintain the continuity and integrity of blood glucose data in homes and hospitals. Continuous glucose monitoring differs from static glucose monitoring in that it preserves data continuity and integrity. If we compare this with an everyday situation we are all familiar with, like trying to zip a jacket, if the zipper has small issues we can still use it, but if many parts are compromised, it won’t work. Translated to medical data, a lot of missing information will affect how we interpret the overall medical condition and lead to problems.” – commented one of Cassia Networks engineers.
At present, Cassia Networks has thoroughly tested and implemented this solution in nearly 200 hospitals. Moreover, through cooperation with CGM manufacturers such as Medtronic and SiSensing, Cassia Networks has created products and solutions that can fully support medical workers in hospitals, as well as family care givers in their efforts to provide the best blood glucose monitoring.
According to a Cassia Networks’ engineer “in a hospital setting, the dynamic blood glucose management system automatically and accurately draws the patient’s blood glucose change curve over time. Using the patient list of the management system, you can clearly see the blood glucose change rate record and blood glucose curve of each patient. Such a blood glucose map not only allows medical staff to understand the patient’s blood glucose change trend more intuitively, but also provides an important basis for timely clinical diagnosis and reasonable treatment.”
Blood glucose monitoring data exchange between homes and hospitals is becoming a trend for Chinese people in blood glucose management. Cassia Networks has launched the mini M1000 Cellular Bluetooth gateway to keep up with this growing demand. Cassia Networks’ engineers shared with us that the three-year long Covid pandemic has had an impact on people’s medical treatments and living habits. Many have experienced a sharp decrease in exercise during the long stay-at-home period. This resulted in changes in eating habits and subsequently has had a negative effect on the blood sugar levels, which have increasingly become difficult to manage with a traditional medication regiment and blood sugar monitoring. As a new intelligent blood glucose monitoring method, CGM technology has begun to move from the hospital and clinic settings to homes. The advantage of this approach is in its ability to monitor blood glucose levels in real time, freeing a lot of time spent earlier on tracking the time when the blood glucose measurements occurred. Another benefit is that it can detect hidden hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia that are not easily detected by traditional detection methods, which is conducive to self-glycemic control in diabetics.
Another Cassia Networks’ product management team member shared that, aside from its convenient small size, the M1000 Bluetooth gateway supports 4G cellular backhaul, is easy to install and use, and has stellar performance. Moreover, it is cost-effective with reinforced stability, security, and scalability. The M1000 is especially suitable for scenarios that require mobility, rapid deployment, and situations in which Bluetooth device density is not very high. Therefore, it can be widely used in mobile sign monitoring and telemedicine in medical institutions and homes.
Compared to other portable CGM and mobile phone APP methods on the market, Cassia Networks M1000 Gateway has the advantage of “truly connecting hospital monitoring and home monitoring” – explained one of the engineers. The CGM device used in the patient’s home is identical to the CGM device used in the hospital, as well as the data processing algorithm. Therefore, it can provide accurate medical information to doctors. As a result, conventional inpatient observation can now be transformed into an at-home observation, which translates into hospitals saving beds, and patients saving money while being monitored from the comfort of their home.
In a hospital setting, M1000 relies on Cassia Networks proprietary Bluetooth roaming technology, which ensures that patients’ blood glucose data is measured continuously whether patients move within hospital wards, corridors, nurses’ stations, doctors’ offices or other locations within a hospital. The M1000’s high-speed multi-connection mode can also provide different configuration parameters for different brands of CGM sensors, improving the stability and reliability of its multi-concurrent connection. M1000 provides end-to-end data security, supports AES128-bit encryption, and https transmission, offering a secure channel for hospital medical data.
Another advantage of this integrated approach is the convenience. As most patients are elderly people, the easy setup of the M1000 is a huge advantage. Moreover, the CGM device automatically connects with the M1000 after powering-on. The battery life is also really long. If a patient needs to step out of their home, they can conveniently charge the battery with a USB-enabled power supply for a total duration of 48 hours and at a very lost cost.
According to the data released by the International Diabetes Federation, the number of diagnosed diabetes patients in China exceeded 100 million in 2019. This number is expected to reach 200 million in 2030, resulting in a huge market demand for blood sugar management. In addition, at-home blood glucose monitoring as part of the self-health management market is on a rapid increase. It is expected that other aspects of at-home monitoring devices will be increasing in popularity e.g., Bluetooth temperature stickers, ECG stickers, oximeters, blood pressure monitors and other Bluetooth sign monitoring . This will make the M1000 Gateway a gold standard for at-home health monitoring.
Hospitals also experience a huge benefit from this solution. Extending medical services to patients’ families not only saves the excessive consumption of medical resources, but it also provides more convenient and comfortable services for patients while reducing the caregiving labor. The complete system interprets the patient ledger and generates complete and easy-to-interpret reports for medical staff. This results in the reduction of work hours, improved work efficiency, and most importantly allows doctors to modify or change medication regiments remotely. The patients are ultimately empowered to have more information and better choices when it comes to their health.
