Winning With TYpe 1 Diabetes By Learning How To Use Continuous Glucose Monitoring CGM
Welcome to Sugar Surfing!
Kevin McMahon
Prior to 2001, Kevin was an experienced technology executive working on advanced mobile telecommunications products and services like E911, Wireless Location Services®, the emergence of mobile commerce and mobile network connected touch screen PDAs (iPAQ by Compaq Computers), navigation and banking applications and mobile operator infrastructure.
Following his then 2 year old's diagnosis with type 1 diabetes, he designed the first device and system for enabling a remotely controllable Artificial Pancreas (AP).
"My first step on the Road to an Artificial Pancreas was an FDA regulated blood glucose meter jacket with built-in cellular network connectivity, real-time peer group analytics and remote control via the Internet".
He created a company called Diabetech and the device was called GlucoMON®-ADMS. By 2004, that device was in the hands of hundreds of patients within carefully monitored clinical trials under Institutional Review Board (IRB) oversight. These research findings were shared with health plans (ie. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas), private foundations (ie. JDRF, Helmsley Trust, ... ) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
During early pilots of this first-generation prototype cloud based remote monitoring and education system, much was learned about the behavioral aspects of living with type 1 diabetes. His team developed the first games and predictive analytics as just a couple of ways to engage patients beyond shuttling numbers here and there. At the 2003 Diabetes Technology Society's annual meeting, Diabetech reported findings from its first study and delivered the message to other researchers that people need less work and better feedback beyond logging more data and receiving only charts and graphs.
Since those early days, Kevin's work expanded into using this technology to support more than a dozen behavioral and clinical research trials including: pancreatic islet cell transplant patient monitoring (2005), type 2 diabetes education, disease management & wellness programs (2006), development of a proprietary high quality home-based hemoglobin A1c test kit, and even a joint venture abroad working closely with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.
"I began my work in diabetes in 2001 after my youngest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I'm an advisor to several startups as well as working on my own next big thing. I regularly contribute articles to medical journals and speak at conferences.
The San Francisco Bay Area is my home."
Along the way he also got involved with design, development and testing of a comprehensive pediatric asthma management program involving text messaging, smart phone apps, content libraries and interaction algorithms to educate and collect data around adherence and acute disease state.
Several studies have been published in peer reviewed medical journals including the landmark "Integrating an Automated Diabetes Management System Into the Family Management of Children with Type 1 Diabetes" (Diabetes Care.35, 498-502. Alexandria VA: The American Diabetes Association).
The NHS continue to operate his remote patient monitoring system for people with type 1, type 2 and diabetes in pregnancy as a proven cost saving innovation without sacrificing quality care. And, various technologies he invented and piloted in clinical research trials are now embedded within the world's most advanced blood glucose meter.
In addition to co-authoring the book, Kevin spends his time designing education programs and tools to support patient self-care as well as establishing the self-health publishing house MediSelf Press.