BOSTON, Nov. 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- T1D Exchange today announced a research partnership with Tidepool to better understand the link between patient reported experiences and the mild and moderate, high and low fluctuations in blood glucose levels experienced by all type 1 diabetes patients.
Tidepool is an open source, not-for-profit company focused on making diabetes device data more accessible, meaningful and actionable to empower people with diabetes and to support innovative research.
Enrollment is now open for the first study which will focus on the impact of these mild fluctuations in blood glucose – those that fall outside the normal range resulting in either hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). While every person with type 1 diabetes regularly experiences these moderate highs and lows in glucose levels, there has been very little research focused on how these fluctuations affect the patient’s health and daily life.
The study will leverage Tidepool’s ability to capture data from nearly every glucose monitoring device (CGM) on the market. People with type 1 diabetes can upload the data using either a Mac or Windows PC platform and can sign up to participate in this and other studies on the new T1DExchange.org website.
“There has been a significant amount of research on how severe, life-threatening swings in blood glucose levels impact mortality, diabetes-related complications, and quality of life,” said endocrinologist Dara P. Schuster, MD, CEO of T1D Exchange.
“What has not been adequately studied, and where we believe we will break new ground, is correlating patient-reported experience and CGM data about the daily episodes of mild and moderate variations in glucose levels, to better understand the impact on the well-being, stress, personal relationships, and other aspects of a patient’s daily life.”
There is no cure for type 1 diabetes, a disease in which the body produces no insulin, and which requires nearly constant monitoring and management of blood glucose levels for survival. Understanding the impact of the continuous fluctuations in blood glucose levels experienced by people with type 1 diabetes has the potential to significantly improve care for those living with the disease, estimated at more than 1.25 million people in the U.S. alone.
“We are excited to bring our expertise in collecting and harnessing device data to T1D Exchange’s groundbreaking work,” said Tidepool Founder, President and CEO Howard Look. “Many people with diabetes don’t understand the power of the information that is locked away in their devices. At Tidepool, we are empowering people with diabetes to liberate their data so that patients, researchers like those at T1D Exchange, device manufacturers and caregivers can gain better real-world insights and understanding of diabetes data and more quickly advance new care management strategies, new therapies, and new devices to improve the lives of people with diabetes.”
“Blood glucose levels can be affected by what you eat, how much you exercise, even the medicines you are taking,” said Dr. Schuster. “We believe this effort to link patient-reported experience with CGM data will give us a granular understanding of how even minute changes in blood glucose impact the lives of people with type 1 diabetes. What we learn will have significant potential to change the way we think about, treat and manage this disease in the future.”
About Tidepool
Tidepool is a California nonprofit organization whose mission is to make diabetes data more accessible, meaningful, and actionable. Tidepool provides free software for people with diabetes, their care teams, and clinicians to see diabetes device data from insulin pumps, continuous blood glucose monitors, and blood glucose meters in a single platform.
Through the Tidepool Clinical Study Platform and the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project, Tidepool is empowering the next generation of diabetes research and innovation.
Tidepool Loop is a project to build and support an FDA-regulated version of Loop, to be available in the iOS App Store, intended to work with commercially available insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs).
About T1D Exchange
T1D Exchange is a nonprofit, research organization dedicated to accelerating therapies and improving care for people affected by type 1 diabetes. T1D Exchange actively supports discovery and innovation through its biobank and patient data. At the same time, the organization understands that evidence gathered in the “real world” can help bridge the gap between discovery in research settings and impact in people’s lives.
T1D Exchange model uses cutting-edge tools, research methods, and a robust IT platform to gather evidence from the real-world and clinical experiences of people living with type 1 diabetes. The goal is to connect biological samples, medical data, and patient insights to all stages of research and development, expediting the development of therapies and better care for everyone affected by type 1 diabetes.
Contacts
For more information, please contact John Gillespie, 314-708-9090 jgillespie@t1dexchange.org or Trisha Gura, PhD., Director, Marketing and Communications, 781-856-4700 tgura@t1dexchange.org.