The calorie-counting patch is nowhere to be seen, and even the folks at the Overeaters Anonymous booth haven't heard about it. Anyway, even if folks knew how many calories they were consuming in real time, would they change their behavior? AADE attendees know knowledge is only part of the health care solution. Motivating people to make health choices is the bigger challenge.

A diagnosis of diabetes gives many people plenty of motivation. The health consequences of not monitoring or treating the disease are dire indeed. And a hall full of medical devices, new pharmaceuticals, and healthy foods still isn't enough to slow down the Type 2 diabetes epidemic. Vegas-style attention-getting stunts like the "gambling with diabetes" improv theatre pictured here is more along the lines of what will turn heads. Social networks, games, and good, ol' fashioned fear and cautionary stories will also play a role.

Outside the AADE halls at Mandalay Bay, reckless dietary behavior continues unabated in Sin City and everywhere else in the U.S. or elsewhere. Patch or no patch, a lot of people know they shouldn't eat as much as they do or exercise as little as they do. A lot of misinformed folks think Type 1 diabetics got that way by sinning thus. They didn't. And in a world of information driven more by social networks than by medical educators or journalists, how will people get the right information? The hall here presents a cogent example. The Corn Refiners Association has a booth and is telling all who will listen that the FDA has found high fructose corn syrup to be as safe as sugar. But on the Internet, it's demonized.

The point is that just having an Internet or a calorie-counting patch doesn't lead to the most informed decisions, focus on the biggest problems, or the healthiest behaviors. The thousands of diabetes educators and patients gathered here are heading the vital human task force that cut through the misinformation and effect real change, person to person, and they don't necessarily need the latest gimmicky technology to get there.

Presumably it measures calories good and bad, but still...wow.

It's challenging. Gadgets are good at tracking physical activity but recording food intake is a manual process subject to error and cheating.

Dr. L. Miguel Encarnacão of Humana said there are food intake sensors under development, but not available yet. Until then digital health care won't offer true management of both exercise and diet.

A Dec. 13 Army Times story highlights a plan to issue every soldier an off-the-shelf cell phone.