I have to admit that when I read the NYT article on diabetes Monday I was impressed at how much space they gave the story. When the same scenario was repeated Tuesday and today, my suspicions were that a "set up" was coming. Well, after reading the Washington Post, I did a quick search of the NYT site for the past two weeks to see if I missed this story - apparently it hasn't run there yet. New York City Starts To Monitor Diabetics.
New York City is starting [this Sunday] to monitor the blood sugar levels of its diabetic residents, marking the first time any government in the United States has begun tracking people with a chronic disease.
Under the program, the city is requiring laboratories to report the results of blood sugar tests directly to the health department, which will use the data to study the disease and to prod doctors and patients when levels run too high.
Health officials first plan to use the data to monitor the quality of care and to determine which parts of the city are being hit hardest by diabetes.
But health officials also plan to use the data to directly intervene in individual patients' care. In a program that will be tested first in the South Bronx, city officials will alert doctors about patients whose blood sugar levels are not being well controlled and will offer advice...Patients will be contacted.
Lessons: (a) coverage of an issue like diabetes care usually has another motive than a transparent "the public needs to know;" (b) as I read the story, I was impressed by the number of public health people (including the American Diabetic Association) who love the idea; and (c) the privacy advocates and one patient get their voice, but (for the media analysts) guess who gets the first and last words on the subject? When all else fails (have they?), pull out the policy intervention. And this may not be, as the reporter notes, an isolated incident:
Both sides agree that the decision is probably a harbinger of a trend in which the government will apply tactics traditionally reserved primarily for infectious diseases to chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and cancer, which have supplanted communicable illnesses as the most pressing public health concerns.
Dust off your ethical standards for this ride.
Technorati Tags: Diabetes, Disease Management, Health Care Policy, American Diabetic Association
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