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Diabetes Research Google and Pharmaceutical Group Sanofi Collaborate
The Internet giant Google and the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi have agreed to cooperate to combat diabetes. The treatment of patients should be facilitated and the costs reduced.
Diabetes numbers will rise dramatically
According to experts, there are six million people in Germany with type 2 diabetes. It should be 400 million worldwide. If nations do not respond with effective prevention strategies, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that by 2035, around 600 million people will be affected by diabetes. Numerous scientists around the world are exploring ways to improve metabolic disease prevention and treatment. The Internet giant Google is also involved. For example, for the first time ever, the Group developed prototypes of intelligent contact lenses for diabetics that are used by the Group to determine blood sugar levels based on tears. Now it has been announced that the Internet giant wants to work together with the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi on new treatment options.
Google Health: More and more inventions by the search giants. Image: vege - fotolia Collaboration on diabetes control
The US company is increasingly spreading in the healthcare sector. Earlier this year, it was announced that Google is working on a wristband for early cancer detection. Through the now agreed collaboration on diabetes control, Google's Life Sciences division director Andy Conrad said that diabetes is just the kind of disease technology could help patients with. The two companies hope to improve the use of health metrics such as blood glucose and hemoglobin, as well as other patient information, and to develop health check sensors. As reported by the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", Conrad told the French business paper "Les Echos": "We want to build an interface that allows doctors and patients to use the data we collect."
Monitor blood sugar levels permanently
Diabetics must constantly monitor their blood sugar levels and dose the insulin intake according to their food intake and physical exertion. Using the standard method, they prick their fingers and guide the swelling blood droplet out to a test strip that is evaluated by a measuring device. A very annoying procedure that can not detect spontaneous derailment of blood sugar in case of doubt. A sudden increase (high blood sugar) or a steep drop (low blood sugar) of the blood sugar levels, however, are extremely critical to health and require immediate countermeasures. In the future, a technology could help here, with German scientists working on it. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) in Duisburg have been busy developing a miniature sensor for diabetics that resembles Google's smart contact lenses. In the future, this could help to detect and correct blood sugar derailment at an early stage.
Improve treatment for patients and reduce costs
Other diagnostic companies and pharmaceutical companies are also working on new solutions, for example, delivery devices such as pens, which have a connection to the doctor via the Bluetooth short-range radio and the Internet. As Google and Sanofi pointed out, such innovations should facilitate treatment for patients, improve outcomes and thus reduce costs. The two companies plan to develop products that can store and analyze glucose levels in the blood in real time, allowing patients and physicians to respond more quickly to peak and lows, avoiding the long-term effects of poorly controlled diabetes, including heart attacks and cancer , According to a message from Bloomberg news agency, Conrad explained that devices that continuously monitor blood glucose levels and upload data to the cloud have allowed patients to move away from reactive and episodic treatment to proactive and preventative treatment. "One gram of prevention outweighs a pound of treatment." (Ad)