New York City has launched a program to regularly monitor the blood sugar levels of city residents suffering from diabetes to ensure better management of the chronic illness. The move is a significant one, considering the speed with which the disease is spreading in the city thanks to obesity and sedentary lifestyle.
The program, announced by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will use electronic medical records for the treatment of those suffering from diabetes, an illness that seriously compromises the quality of life. Over 800,000 New Yorkers have so far fallen prey to the illness, threatening the state coffers.
“Either we fall apart or we stop this,” said Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. New York holds the dubious honor of having the highest rate of diabetes – one-third that of the United States, which has around 21 million diabetics. Obesity among children is further spurring the spread of the disease, with even youngsters falling prey to the disease, which so far was considered an age-related illness.
Under the new program, 120 NY laboratories will have to send their blood sugar test reports to the health department, which will scrutinize the data and counsel those whose levels are too high. The results of the test, called A1c, will have to be reported through the Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting System (ECLRS) within 24 hours.
Through the data, health officials will earmark the areas in NYC that have the highest instances and also notify doctors about patients who are not managing their illness well. Further advice and counseling will be offered to such patients about diet, exercises and other lifestyle adjustments that have to be undertaken to rein in the disease.
While most agree that this would go a long way in helping diabetics, some experts have expressed concerns that the program might amount to intrusion into an individual's medical care. Defending the program, Diana K Berger, chief of Diabetes Prevention and Control Program of the health department, said, “It (diabetes) really ravages and wreaks havoc on the body. People can live long, beautiful lives with diabetes, but if they don't take it seriously, it can be devastating.”
If not curbed in time, high levels of blood sugar can lead to heart attacks, renal failure, amputations and even blindness. The program might help New York's 530,000 diabetics improve the quality of their life and help 250,000 others who are unaware they might be diabetic.
Hailing the program, Steven Lamm of the Men's Health Channel for Revolution Health Group said, “Successful management of diabetes requires a great patient. Improving compliance with the medical care plan can reduce heart attacks, blindness, and kidney failure. The improved health and well-being of an individual will transfer into tremendous reductions in societal health care costs.” University of Vermont's Benjamin Littenberg added. “There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who are going to have heart attacks, strokes, amputations and dialysis because we are not paying good enough attention to their diabetes. This has got tremendous potential to prevent an enormous amount of misery, pain and premature death.”
But Lawrence O Gostin, of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities, asked if such interference was justified. “The questions it raises all have to do with the nanny state: Should the government be collecting this kind of information? Should it be intervening like this? You can imagine it getting to the point where you have a public health worker showing up at your door and asking, 'Did you remember to exercise, eat right and take your medication today?'” he said.
Agreed Sue A Blevins of the Institute for Health Freedom. “This is really a recipe for invasion of privacy. Under the law, personal health information can be shared without consent for many purposes. All it takes is a click of a mouse.”
