New front in the diabetes war

(Times photo- Paul Natonabah)

Vice President Ben Shelley and Space Data staff try to control the balloon in strong winds Monday as Robert Nakai, director of the Navajo Special Diabetes Project, gets out of the way.

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The Navajo Nation Special Diabetes Project has a new weapon in its fight to keep Navajos from succumbing to the disease.

The agency is participating in a pilot project that uses weather balloons and handheld devices to monitor the blood sugar level of diabetics living far from local health care facilities.

There are 24,000 Navajos with diabetes and 10,000 more are pre-diabetic, the early stage of the disease, according to Navajo Nation Division of Health data.

Many are older people living in remote areas of the reservation.

The agency is partnering with Space Data, a private company based in Chandler, Ariz., under a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The federal agency is providing $360,000 a year and if the project succeeds, the tribe will try to get long-term funding for it.

Speaking at the first balloon launch Feb. 23, former President Peterson Zah said the new technology is a necessary step for the diabetes project to improve service to its clients.

"I never dreamed when I was living out in Low Mountain herding sheep that we would be at this stage today," said Zah, who grew up in one of the most isolated parts of Dinétah. "But (technological advances) are happening in a short period of time, and that's amazing."

Zah provided the original introduction between Space Data officials and President Joe Shirley Jr., who gave the project his blessing in May 2007.

Space Data hoped at the time to get it going within two months, said company CEO Jerry Knoblach. Delays in securing the funding pushed back the date, said Robert Nakai, director of the Special Diabetes Project.

But on Monday all that was forgotten as Space Data officials, accompanied by Zah and Vice President Ben Shelley, released the first balloon into the sky outside the Navajo Nation Museum.

The five-foot wide, helium-filled latex balloon was attached to a transmitter about the size of a DVD player. Once released, the balloon rapidly rose out of sight. It will reach an altitude of about 100,000 feet, where it will drift along in the outer boundaries of the earth's atmosphere.

The transmitter will relay signals sent from the handheld devices on the ground, which transmit data such as the blood-sugar readings from a diabetes patient.

Knoblach said the system is ideal for the Navajo Nation because a single balloon can cover the entire reservation, whereas it would take about 300 towers on the ground to achieve the same coverage.

Space Data specializes in communication systems utilizing weather balloons. The U.S. Air Force employs the company's balloons as well as a number of oil companies who use them to monitor pipelines and coordinate the movement of tanker trucks, Knoblach said.

Space Data will launch a balloon every day from Gallup or Cedar City, Utah, depending on the season - winds are steadier in near-space than closer to earth, enabling the company to accurately predict how long it will take a balloon to drift out of transmission range.

After 24 hours, the usual lifespan of a balloon, the transmitter will detach and fall back to earth on a parachute, where it will be located using a GPS tracker. It will then be attached to a new balloon and launched again.

Unburdened by the transistor, the old balloon rises further, expanding until it bursts and falls back to earth as tiny fragments of latex.

Currently 21 Navajo diabetes patients are signed up to participate in the project, said Patricia Begay, project specialist for the Special Diabetes Project. The project is targeting 16 Western Agency chapters, including Tuba City and Shonto.

The participants each will receive a personal data assistant, a small computer on which they will manually enter their blood glucose readings. With the push of a button, the readings will be sent via the balloon transmitter to Special Diabetes Project staff, who will check for abnormalities. If a patient has a dangerously high blood sugar level, an emergency medical team will be sent to the patient's home.

Aside from its potential to greatly improve emergency response to diabetic crises, the project is intended to accumulate a history of data on clients so that health care providers can better treat their condition, Begay said.

More consistent data will help doctors assess the reasons for fluctuations in the patients' health, she explained.

But that hasn't always been an easy sell with the patients.

Begay said part of the reason the launch was delayed so long was the time it took to pitch the project to Special Diabetes clients. Some elderly patients were hesitant, not familiar with the technology, and questioned its health benefits and environmental impact.

The USDA will evaluate the project annually. If it performs well, the Special Diabetes Project plans to expand it to include the Eastern and Central Navajo agencies, Begay said.