Late 2007 saw two exciting diabetes-related remote patient monitoring projects take positive steps forward.

The Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation and its Research Institute received a $1.2 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study the use of personal health records and remote monitoring in managing diabetes.

“One of the keys to managing chronic disease is partnering with patients,” said Paul Tang, MD, chief medical information officer at PAMF. “The more tools patients have to monitor their own chronic conditions, the more motivated they are to change their health behavior. Our study takes monitoring to the next level, where we have continuous feedback on the disease directly from the patient.”

The PAMF study splits 400 patients into experimental and control groups, and provides the experimental group with online access to their health data, customized resources about their care plan, self-management tools and the services of a diabetes care manager.

Currently in the beta phase, the trial will begin in May 2008 and last for two years.