7 Healthcast: Connected Health Program

BOSTON -- How would you like to be able to manage your own health care at home? One local doctor is making that possible with his new Connected Health Program.

“The whole thing is about patient care, where the patient is, when the patient needs it,” said Founder & Director of Connected Health Dr. Joe Kvedar.

Dr. Joe Kevedar is the founder and director of Partner Center for Connected Health.

The Connected Health Program uses technology to help patients manage their care at home.

“You might have high blood pressure, we’ll give you a kit to monitor your blood pressure in your own home and then that information gets from your blood pressure cuff to our data base,” said Kevedar. “We have tools to remind you when to take your medicine, and document that you did take your medicine.”

Jerry Bello, 65, of West Roxbury has type 2 diabetes. He uses the Connected Health Program to help control his sugar levels.

“It allows you to figure out what foods are good for your particular diabetes, and what food is bad, and you can basically use it to create a new diet and one that’s good for you,” said Bello.

Jerry takes his blood sugar levels at home and then downloads the results.

And through the computer both he and his doctor can monitor his progress.

“So this allowed me to eat those foods, take a reading, check it out and comment on the website so I could keep track of all these things,” said Bello.

He says it makes it easier to stay on track.

“You inevitably try to cheat and when you cheat you get very visible and immediate feedback on that…so it’s something that is very helpful in that way of keeping you honest and keeping you on track,” said Bello.

Doctor Kevedar believes the more connected a person is to their own care, the more successful they become at managing their care.

“The tools of Connected Health enable those patients to really keep their healthcare top of mind while the rest of their life is rushing by them and enable them to pay the right attention to their care and to their condition, so that they can stay healthier longer,” said Kevedar.

(Copyright (c) 2011 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)