Ten months ago, we announced that Steady Health was joining Carbon Health on its mission to make great healthcare accessible to all. Today, we’re thrilled to share the next step in this journey: the Carbon Health diabetes program, a virtual, specialist-led program powered by data from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices.
After a successful pilot, we’re launching this first-of-its-kind program for people ages 16 and older in California, with plans to expand in the future. Through this program, we are not only setting a new standard for diabetes care, but also creating an innovative new primary care model that integrates clinical care, remote monitoring by specialists, and consumer hardware.
The Carbon Health diabetes program combines CGM data, information about nutrition and physical activity, and a specialized care team that interprets the data and creates a customized treatment plan optimized for a patient’s body, lifestyle, and preferences. Patients can message their care team through the Carbon Health app to ask questions or share important information, like medication side effects. This enables our care team to better tailor their diet and physical activity suggestions according to how a person reacts to specific foods or physical activities, as well as to select the most suitable medication.
Over the past year, we’ve witnessed patients achieve exceptional, and lasting, results: in our latest cohort, 80 percent of patients are achieving 70 percent time in range despite an average baseline HbA1c of 9.3 percent. And three months later, 80 percent are still maintaining that level of glycemic control. The initial results of our care model were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research this month.
We’re excited to continue to drive results for patients like Jason S., who, through his relationship with his Carbon Health care team and helpful CGM data, has reshaped his approach to diet and exercise, enabling him to maintain 95 percent time in range. Watch Jason’s story:
I started Steady Health in 2018 after personally experiencing how impactful CGM devices were for managing my own diabetes. Manual finger pricks and quarterly visits suddenly felt very out-of-date. Together with an incredible team, I set out on a journey to give patients access to care that is specialized and personal, and that could raise the standard.
In 2021, we decided to advance in that journey by teaming up with Carbon Health, which shared our vision for improving the way that chronic conditions like diabetes are managed. Finally, we had every piece of the puzzle necessary to deliver on our promise: a clinic footprint with more than 100 locations across the U.S., close integration with primary care (which is responsible for most diabetes care), and a powerful digital platform that can deliver quality care at an affordable price.
Launching this diabetes program is the next step on our path to expanding our capabilities and addressing complex issues within the American healthcare system, such as fragmentation that causes broken handoffs and disjointed care. This diabetes program leverages omnichannel care delivery, which is designed to meet patients where they are, powering continuous care across a variety of access points and reducing broken handoffs while advancing the specialty care capabilities of primary care physicians.
We believe that data is key to transforming disease management for conditions like diabetes. And to build our always-on model of care, we have partnered with both Abbott and Dexcom — the two leading manufacturers of CGM devices in the U.S. This makes us one of the first health systems to bring data from hundreds of thousands of patients — via our EMR — directly into the hands of providers.
Today’s announcement marks the end of Steady Health and the beginning of something much bigger.
This is a milestone event in the history of Carbon Health. We are realizing our vision of omnichannel care, in which moments of care happen not only in our clinics and via virtual appointments but also between visits. These moments are opportunities to improve the life of a patient, and very rarely do they coincide with routine visits. With Carbon Health, we want to seize those moments and make them magical — whenever and wherever they happen.
Thanks to my colleagues at Carbon Health:
Clinicians: Calwin Wu
Product Team: Ayo Omojola
Clinical Informatics: Haritha Atluri
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