GluCare recently conducted its first case study in the use of digital therapeutics (DTx) and remote patient monitoring for Hyperthyroidism. This case demonstrated GluCare’s ability to successfully implement a swift and personalized approach to treating this disease.
Our patient was a 29-year-old woman with sudden enlargement of her thyroid over a 1-month period. The patient reported palpitations and feeling anxious. She had no known diseases. Her normal average heart rate was 60 bpm (beats per minute).
Clinical presentation showed a heart rate of 144 bpm during assessment and 127 bpm on ECG. Her diastolic blood pressure was elevated. These, in addition to the laboratory tests and ultrasound findings, indicated Hyperthyroidism due to Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid.
Immediate treatment
We started the patient’s treatment immediately using a combination of medication and the GluCare proprietary monitoring platform. The patient was given a band that recorded her heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep patterns, respiration rates and other parameters that the patient was able to see at home and the clinical team was able to monitor in the clinic simultaneously.
Day 1-5
Over the next few days, the GluCare team monitored her continuously and could see an almost immediate decrease in heart rate from an average of 100 bpm to an average of 90 bpm.
The patient was able to have continuous dialogue with our care team using our app chat function. This two-way communication provided real time feedback on her condition combined with her physical data from the band. The patient reported that she was feeling much better and no longer felt palpitations or anxiety which correlated with her clinical data from the band.
Day 11-13
The GluCare care team routinely monitored the patient’s heart rate and sleep patterns. We observed that while her average heart rate during sleep hours was considered in the acceptable range (average 80 bpm), it was still higher than baseline (average 60 bpm) and could be improved.
Day 14
The patient was asked to come into the clinic after 2 weeks for a follow up visit. Diagnostic tests showed that her thyroid hormones had reduced, but still remained in the high range. This explained why the patient’s heart rate had reduced during the daytime and while sleeping, but not returned to baseline. As a result, we increased her medication. The patient’s blood pressure had returned to normal.
This is an example of the use of GluCare DTx platform where the patient’s care was NOT the traditional two isolated clinic visits 2 weeks apart.
Instead, a new model of treatment was provided in which the patient was continuously engaged with us, both with chat and with signals sent to us from her band every few minutes. We routinely observed her heart rate and sleep patterns for the period in between visits, which helped the care team to eliminate the typical guesswork that happens when a patient leaves a physical facility. Our artificial intelligence platform also flagged us with any concerns when it came to significant changes in sleep or other physiological patterns and helped our human care team zoom into any concerns.
GluCare Integrated Diabetes Center- Welcome to the future of Endocrine Disease Management. We use technology as a humanizing force to change the way endocrine diseases are managed so that care is provided by a multidisciplinary team all the time, and not just when patients are in the clinic.
