Letter from the Editor #666: ARK-Care Real-time Data Management System

It seems like every day there is a new study that conflicts with the results released only a couple of days before. Over the past 3 months we have had 5 articles discussing whether diet drinks increase caloric intake, appetite and diabetes risk. The last article just a week ago looked upon diet drinks favorably when it comes to appetite. That study contradicted an earlier study that had indicated diet drinks increase appetite. Now a new study of diet soda drinkers found that they don’t eat any more sugary or fatty foods than people who stick with water instead. The study found that those patients who switched to either water or diet drinks went from between 2,000 and 2,300 calories to 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day.

This conflict of information continues this week as an article in JAMA recommends not moving patients to a GLP-1 analog because increased risk of pancreatitis. This article was met with so much challenge that we went ahead and attached another article rebutting the results.

We work hard getting our patients to start monitoring on a regular basis and then all of a sudden they stop and we bang our heads against the wall to figure out why. I believe the reason is that often they "see no value in monitoring." Frequently I ask patients in a class, "What do you do with your readings?" I either hear, "I write them down and give to my prescriber," or, "Nothing, they are in the machine." So since a lot of times they see no value in those readings they quit rather than endure the pain. Now there is a way for them to actually use the readings they get. The ARK-Care real-time data management system, from Arkray is made for people with diabetes, their management team and support circle. Using the ARK-Care real-time data management system gives your patients a reason to monitor and the data needed to make intelligent, informed decisions about their care.

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Dave Joffe, Editor-in-chief