Diagnosis spurs proactive solution.

In 1993, while in graduate school, NuMedics’ founder Kazi Ahmed was diagnosed with diabetes. Seeking a way to lead a near-normal quality of life—while dealing with a disease that also afflicted both of his parents—Ahmed decided to take a proactive approach consulting with specialists, pouring over thousands of papers, abstracts and clinical studies, and expanding on what he already knew about the potential devastation of diabetes and its complications: blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage that often resulted in amputation.

That same year, an important study, “The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial,” showed that intense monitoring and tight glucose control can dramatically reduce or even prevent long-term diabetes-related complications. This was a turning point in diabetes management and Ahmed realized that with better management capabilities, the debilitating effects of the disease are not inevitable.

Armed with these research findings and his computer programming skills, Ahmed devised a blood glucose tracking system for use on his personal hand-held computer. This system was the first of its kind—an automated method for uploading data from a blood glucose meter directly to a computer. With the life-changing results the device granted Ahmed, he quickly recognized the potential of his diabetes management tool to help others. The implications for better health care and a better quality of life for the more than 30 million Americans and 422 million people worldwide diagnosed with diabetes were too significant to ignore. So, with Ahmed’s life savings and additional funding from investors, NuMedics, Inc. was formed.

Groundbreaking disease management tools.

In 1995, the company released its first product Diabetes Partner™—a groundbreaking comprehensive software application that enabled diabetes patients to easily monitor insulin dosages, nutritional intake and blood glucose levels. Diabetes Partner received positive response from care providers and patients alike, and the company soon realized that to effectively transform and improve diabetes care, similar electronic tools were needed in physicians’ offices. So, the growing NuMedics team designed CliniPro® to allow care providers access to patient charts, data tracking and analysis tools, an appointment book, and an email system directly from their computers. In short, telemedicine was born.

By late 1997, after building the NuMedics’ development team and successfully launching the initial two products, the vision of proactive, interactive diabetes management tools that facilitate a higher standard—yet lower cost—of care had become a reality. The work didn’t stop there and over the decades, NuMedics has continued to expand and improve their products to meet the ever-growing needs of clinicians, caregivers and patients for better disease management tools.

Software advancements.

The first major change to NuMedics’ original software was brought on by the realization that many smaller offices simply don’t have the facilities or IT support necessary to maintain complex software such as CliniPro. Wanting to ensure that all physicians are capable of offering the same level of care to their patients, NuMedics immediately began developing a more easily accessible version of their clinical software. This led to the release of CliniPro-Net in 2006, which gave clinics access to all the tools and features of CliniPro through a web portal, along with data storage and maintenance, thus removing the need for on-site facilities and IT staff.

The next development came with CliniProWeb, an online diabetes management tool which interfaces with both Diabetes Partner and CliniPro-Net. With CliniProWeb, healthcare professionals could now establish an electronic link with their patients who used Diabetes Partner and complete the telemedicine bridge. Patients could transfer their healthcare data via secure modem connection, to their physicians for ongoing, accurate, immediate monitoring. The secured data, in turn, provides valuable, information for vital outcomes and other studies.

Today, NuMedics continues to improve upon the original software technology to address other chronic illnesses and health situations in which careful monitoring and management are essential. The company is actively working with other device manufacturers and API developers to further advance disease management and patient care.