Novo Nordisk announced today the availability of NovoDoseTM – the first-ever mobile insulin dosing guide for physicians to look up dosing guidelines and blood glucose goals for their patients with diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 24 million Americans. The guide is available as an application on iTunes and is specific to Novo Nordisk’s modern insulin analog portfolio: Levemir® (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection), NovoLog® (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection), and NovoLog® Mix 70/30 (70% insulin aspart protamine suspension and 30% insulin aspart injection, [rDNA origin]).
Through a series of questions with easy touch-screen answers, NovoDose™ allows physicians to select the type of insulin they want to research, review suggested guidelines for dosing, titration and even blood glucose goals for their patients. The app also provides important safety information on the products and only those who self-identify as healthcare professionals can download the app.
“The dosing app from Novo Nordisk is a great tool that provides healthcare professionals with diabetes management information at the touch of a finger,” said Anup Kumar Sabharwal, MD, an endocrinologist in Miami. “The app can save time for primary care physicians and hospitalists, who may not have the experience dosing analog insulins, and may help them to calculate doses from their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. This is where modern medicine is headed.”
This new technology is part of a trend of physicians using hand-held devices (i.e., PDAs or SmartPhones) when treating their patients. According to a survey conducted by Manhattan Research of nearly 2,000 physicians:
- 70 percent believe their PDA/SmartPhone is “essential” to their practice, and
- 81 percent want more apps related to their specialty.
Specific to the dosing guide app Novo Nordisk created,
- Nearly half of those interviewed (44 percent) have accessed a dosing calculator online from their phone, and
- 61 percent would prefer to access a dose calculator through their PDA vs. their computer.
“Physicians are embracing the Internet as part of how they practice medicine – from accessing clinical trials online to networking with peers across the country through sites like SERMO, most physicians agree that access to information online is an asset to their practice,” said Camille Lee, Vice President, Diabetes Marketing, Novo Nordisk. “We’re taking that one step further with NovoDoseTM by literally putting that information in the palm of their hands.”
NovoDoseTM is now available for free download at www.novodose.com/app or on iTunes for those who self-identify as a healthcare professional. Doctors should type “NovoDose” in the search field to find the application, or search under Health.
Source: Novo Nordisk.
Too bad there wasn’t an app to help PATIENTS with diabetes dose insulin. Doctors presumably have studied this subject far more extensively than patients have, yet patients are the ones asked to make these adjustments numerous times of day without physician or educator guidance.