MedicAlert® and American Diabetes Association® Team Up for Diabetics

09/20/2004

MedicAlert Foundation, the leading emergency medical information service, and the American Diabetes Association®(ADA), the nation's leading organization providing diabetes research, information and advocacy, have teamed up to develop an educational strategy designed to increase access to information about both organizations for people living with diabetes.

“The incidence of diabetes is rapidly rising, and is one of the primary conditions among our members,” said Ramesh Srinivasan, vice president of marketing at MedicAlert. “The ADA is a perfect fit to educate them on how to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles.”

Diabetes can cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, amputations, and other complications. It is important that these conditions be identified in an emergency to ensure patient safety. The risk for complications among diabetics in an emergency can increase significantly if their conditions aren’t relayed to medical professionals.

“With MedicAlert, electronic health records are instantly available to emergency response professionals,” said Francie Davenport, corporate membership manager at ADA.

“ADA supports the MedicAlert mission to protect and save lives in an emergency, thus enhancing the quality of life for diabetics.”     There are 18.2 million people in the United States, or 6.3 percent of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 13 million have been diagnosed, unfortunately, 5.2 million people are unaware that they have the disease. Founded in 1956, MedicAlert (www.medicalert.org) is one of the world's largest nonprofit membership organizations with a mission to protect and save lives. The MedicAlert Electronic Health Record provides a secure and seamless transfer of identification and medical information to health and safety professionals 24 hours a day anywhere in the world, thereby ensuring patient safety and improving the quality of their care. About MedicAlertHeadquartered in the United States, MedicAlert has affiliates in 9 countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand that help serve our 4 million members around the globe.

About the ADAFounded in 1940, the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) conducts programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reaching hundreds of communities. The mission of the Association is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. To fulfill this mission, the American Diabetes Association funds research, publishes scientific findings, provides information and other services to people with diabetes, their families, health professionals and the public. The Association is also actively involved in advocating for scientific research and for the rights of people with diabetes.