Continuous blood glucose monitoring company DexCom has appointed Dr. Eric Topol to its board of directors.
Topol also serves as Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, Founding Member and Chief Medical Officer of the West Wireless Health Institute, Board Member of Triage Wireless and was on CardioNet's Scientific Advisory Board previously. DexCom looks to be the first wireless health company focused on diabetes that Topol has taken under his wing. It's worth noting that the West Wireless Health Institute recently announced its first clinical trial would be with Corventis, a wireless remote monitoring company for heart issues.
During an interview with mobihealthnews a few months ago, Topol explained his take on whether chronic disease management should be automated or whether it should rely on the patient to enter the data: "I think you want both, but you don't want to rely on patients to enter their own data," Topol said. "It doesn't work too well. As a cardiologist, I have patients that enter their blood pressure data and just fax or email it to me, but they don't want to do that. If I do get it, it's often an incomplete record. So, I'd like to see this information automated."
"On the other hand, we want to get that information available to the patient so that they can see it and so that it helps to empower them," Topol continued. "We don't want to rely on individuals to manually enter anything, because it just doesn't get done efficiently. This is especially true if you are doing continuous or near-continuous monitoring. In that case it's just impossible."
DexCom's approach seems to strike the kind of balance between patient empowerment and automation that Topol described.
DexCom's star product right now looks to be the Seven Plus Sensor, which includes a CBGM sensor that is FDA-approved for seven days of wearing. The monitoring software also includes hypo-alerts, hypo safety alarms and various types of beeps for customization. The device is wireless and water-resistant, too. For more information on the device, check out this write-up from the popular diabetes-centric blog, SixUntilMe, penned earlier this year.
For more on Topol's appointment to DexCom's board, read the company press release after the jump.
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SAN DIEGO - DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM) today announced the appointment of Eric Topol, M.D. as a member of DexCom's Board of Directors. Dr. Topol is the Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, a National Institutes of Health funded program of the Clinical and Translational Science Award Consortium. In 2009, he was named the Gary and Mary West Endowed Chair of Innovative Medicine. He is Professor of Translational Genomics at The Scripps Research Institute, the Chief Academic Officer of Scripps Health, and a Senior Consultant cardiologist practitioner at Scripps Clinic.
"Eric is one of the most respected and successful leaders in the medical field. We recruited Eric to the board of directors for his breadth of experience and history of driving innovation in the complex and dynamic healthcare environment" said Terry Gregg, President and Chief Executive Officer of DexCom.
Prior to Scripps, Dr. Topol served on the faculty of Case Western as a professor in genetics, chaired the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic for fifteen years and raised its status to rank number one by the US News and World Report for 11 consecutive years. He also founded the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.
Dr. Topol has also been a medical innovator in wireless medicine. He served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardionet, and currently is on the Board of Directors of Triage Wireless. He is the Chief Medical Officer and Founding Board Member of the newly established Gary and Mary West Wireless Health Institute.
About DexCom, Inc.
DexCom, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, California, is developing and marketing continuous glucose monitoring systems for ambulatory use by patients and by healthcare providers in the hospital.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements
DexCom is a medical device company with a limited operating history. Successful commercialization of the company's products is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including a lack of acceptance in the marketplace by physicians and patients, the inability to manufacture products in commercial quantities at an acceptable cost, possible delays in the company's development programs, the inability of patients to receive reimbursements from third-party payors and inadequate financial and other resources. Certain of these risks and uncertainties, in addition to other risks, are more fully described in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ending March 31, 2009, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 6, 2009.
DexCom, Inc.
Steve Pacelli
Chief Administrative Officer
(858) 200-0200
