Residents of two localities in Shanghai can keep a check on diabetes on their iPads and smartphones after the city's first intelligent terminal-based diabetes management network is introduced next month.
Both Chinese and expatriates who live in the subdistrict of Ruijin No. 2 Road in Huangpu District and Lianyang Community in the Pudong New Area will be among the earliest to try out the new program, which is launched by the Shanghai Charity Foundation and guided by the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The program on www.tnbfz.org will include information about disease prevention and control, free screening for residents over 35 years of age and support for patients regarding medication, diet, exercise, etc.
Diabetics will receive free checkup on their sugar glucose levels every month and hemoglobin twice a year at their neighborhood health centers where they can monitor their conditions. The website is currently only in Chinese but if the expatriates show interest in the program, it will be made bilingual, officials said.
Patients can input data of their glucose levels, medicines and the amount of time spent exercising on the network. They will be advised accordingly by trained general physicians at the health centers.
Sponsored by the US-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, local charity and health authorities want to figure out a way to control diabetes in big cities through the three-year program. It will be promoted to more regions and cities later.
With the number of the elderly population growing, and other factors like obesity, unhealthy diet and lack of exercises, diabetes has seen a steady climb in cities. A research conducted in 2009 found that 15.6 percent of local residents between the ages of 35 and 74 were diabetic.
Shanghai CDC estimates that there are some 1.5 million diabetic patients in the city.
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