There's a growing market for digital diabetes management tools, but a new report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) is warning that these tools aren't helping people with type 2 diabetes live longer, healthier lives, and that they're actually raising health care spending, reports the New York Times.
The report looked at eight widely used digital diabetes management tools, including those that allow patients to track blood glucose using noncontinuous glucometers, and found that they provided only "small reductions in hemoglobin A1C compared with those who do not," the report says.
"The reductions also are not sufficient or sustained enough change the trajectory of patients' health, care, or long-term prognosis, including cardiovascular risks," it adds.
The report is the first from PHTI, which is a $50 million initiative funded through philanthropy that provides independent evaluations of digital technologies designed to improve health and lower costs.
"However, benefits aren't great enough or durable enough to change patients' health prognosis or clinical care," Caroline Pearson, executive director of PHTI, tells Fierce Healthcare.
Some critics, however, say the report is flawed.
For example, the report found that using these tools led to only a small reduction in hemoglobin A1C compared with those who didn
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