The University of Florida Diabetes Institute announced a new partnership with Google.org on Aug. 13 that will expand diabetes care and early screening for underserved patients across Florida.
The funding supports Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes Diabetes (ECHO), a tele-education network that trains primary care providers statewide, and a screening initiative aimed at catching type 1 diabetes before a medical emergency like diabetic ketoacidosis, occurs.
“At Google, we believe that information is a determinant of health, and access to the right clinical guidance at the right time can transform lives,” Garth Graham, head of global healthcare and public health at Google and YouTube, and former assistant dean for health policy at the UF College of Medicine, said in a statement. “We are deeply proud to support the University of Florida as they pioneer new ways to scale clinical expert guidance using technology.
Since 2018, Project ECHO has connected endocrinologists, dietitians and clinical health psychologists with primary care providers at more than 120 clinical sites across the state, many serving patients who may not have easy access to a specialist.
Ashby Walker, an associate professor at UF’s College of Public Health and associate director of community and population health at the Diabetes Institute, said Google’s funding, in addition to providing educational resources, will put continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) in the hands of patients who could not otherwise afford them. The data collected by the CGMs will give their primary care provider an electronic health record dashboard to monitor risks of a medical emergency.
“We’re leveraging data and the power of AI and machine learning to better guide the primary care provider who has so many things on her plate,” Walker said.
More than 11% of Americans have diabetes and another 28% have prediabetes, according to the American Institutes for Research.
With only one endocrinologist for every 35,000 Florida residents, Todd Brusko, director of the Diabetes Institute, said at the event, roughly 90% of diabetes care falls to primary care providers. But limited access to diabetes specialists and insufficient training for general practitioners often results in patients being misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed.
“The Google.org funding and transformative program have the capacity to educate health care professionals and improve the lives of those living with diabetes today,” Brusko said. “Amplifying the results of our original program success can have far-reaching benefits to other serious conditions such as heart disease, stroke risk and neuropathy, with the potential to improve outcomes for millions of patients across the state, the nation and the world.”
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF, Google launch diabetes care initiative in Florida
Reporting by Chelsea Long, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chelsea Long, Gainesville Sun | USA TODAY Network
