TTA Archives 2005-2012

Our readers with interest in how Alere’s partnership with WellDoc/AT&T ForHealth for diabetes management and education is being positioned should review this article from Bloomberg. It is glowingly favorable with plenty of testimonials, and stresses the role of education and coaching for diabetics. It is also a testament to how slow-going adoption is, despite the hype surrounding this category. Editor Donna notes that while the WellDoc DiabetesManager platform was FDA cleared in 2010, adoption has been slow with only two major customers (AT&T and Health Care Service Corp.) using it for employee programs. WellDoc, while well regarded, has been stuck in the well-known limbo of demonstration and short-term pilots that most eHealth systems/devices wind up in, a/k/a ‘pilot-itis’, even though their model is B2B (companies and health management organizations). Hopefully the Alere partnership can speed their adoption and pairing with appropriate blood glucose monitoring (e.g. MedApps connectivity with BG devices) to serve as a model for other developers.