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Activity 2.1.4 Routine Testing: In the Lab

BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE

Activity 2.1.5

Telehealth

Distance Learning Support

Check with your teacher about:
What work you need to turn in and how to submit it
Strategies for collaboration

GOALS

Discuss the pros and cons of virtual visits and remote monitoring.
Describe the impact of telemedicine on the health care field.
Explain how the body maintains homeostasis.

RESOURCES

Cass’ Diary Entries

Optional Extension: Remote Patient Monitoring Case Study

Health Care on the Go

You check your schedule and notice that your next appointment is with long-time
patient, Cassandra Casa, or Cass, as she likes to be called, and her parents.

Figure 1. Second Appointment Highlighted on Daily Schedule

Cass is 16 years old and has been a patient at Total Care Clinic since her birth. She
and her family are looking forward to speaking with you. They are traveling and are
in Romania, so you will meet with them remotely. Click play to be connected with
them.

Cassandra Casa Telehealth Appointment video

Telehealth
Telemedicine is a new frontier in health care. It literally translates to “healing at a
distance”. The virtual appointment between you and Cass is an example
of telehealth. Telehealth is a way for individuals to remotely access health-related
services using technology, rather than in-person contact. The goal of telehealth is to
make it easier for a patient to connect with a healthcare provider and vice versa.

1 To learn other ways telehealth is used to help others, interact with the
flashcards.

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Reflection Question: Brainstorm a list of those who might benefit from

telehealth.

Compare your response

Food Is Fuel
At the age of 14, Cass was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes , a chronic health
condition that will impact her for the rest of her life. Before her family left for Romania,
they reached out to you to discuss how to manage her care while out of the country.
Fortunately, advances in technology have opened the doors for care outside of
traditional office visits. Even while traveling, Cass and her family are able to receive
medical care from Total Care Clinic. Because Cass has diabetes, she has to carefully
monitor what she eats. To learn why, we have to take a look at the composition of
food, explore how our body utilizes it, and look at situations when our body fails to
utilize it.

Our bodies require energy to carry out daily functions such as breathing, thinking,
walking, and numerous other actions. This energy is produced by our bodies from
biomolecules , large molecules, or macromolecules, found in the foods we eat.
There are four main biomolecules, but only three are a source of energy.

Additional Information: Cells generate energy using a series of chemical

reactions , known as cellular respiration. The oxygen we breathe in is
required for this process. One end product of cellular respiration
is adenosine triphosphate, or ATP . ATP is the energy compound that
powers all of our activities. Cellular respiration occurs in the mitochondria
of our cells. You have thousands of mitochondria in each cell (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Cells in the Human Body

Which types of cells in your body need a greater number of

mitochondria? Why?
Check your response

2 Review the presentation describing the four types of biomolecules.

PLTW LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

Record the four categories of biomolecules. List each biomolecule
along with the types of food in which it’s found. Indicate the order in
which each biomolecule is used by the body for energy production.

Carbohydrates
Compounds, such as sugar, starch, and cellulose. Carbohydrates are found in foods and
living tissues. Carbohydrates are a primary source of energy for cells.

Figure 3. Four Types of Biomolecules

The body primarily makes

energy from
carbohydrates . As
carbohydrates are
metabolized , glucose is
released into the
bloodstream for use by our
bodies to make energy.
The pancreas, one of the
organs found in the
abdomen, (Figure 4), plays
Figure 4. The Pancreas
an important role in our
body’s use of glucose.

Under normal conditions, once glucose makes its way to our bloodstream, cells in
the pancreas are stimulated to release a hormone , a molecule that provides
instructions to cells, called insulin . Insulin tells the cells in our body to take in
glucose. This glucose is then used to produce energy to fuel our body’s activities.
After our immediate energy needs are met, insulin levels drop and excess glucose is
stored in the liver (Figure 4).

3 Interact with the animation to learn how cells take in glucose for use in
making energy. Pay attention to the role of insulin in moving glucose into a
cell.

Interact in 3D

Open the Insulin Action model in a new tab.

PLTW LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

Describe the insulin-glucose relationship.
a. Draw an example of a cell membrane in your lab notebook. In
addition to the membrane, include in your drawing: insulin, glucose,
and cell receptors.
b. Summarize the normal relationship between insulin and glucose.

Diabetes Dilemma
Diabetes is a disease in which the cells in the body cannot efficiently uptake glucose.
When you have type 1 diabetes, your body does not produce much, if any, insulin.
Therefore, you have a reduced ability to use glucose from the foods consumed and
do not produce sufficient energy for everyday tasks.

Initial symptoms of type 1 diabetes are fatigue, exhaustion, and dizziness, among
other symptoms. Since glucose is not being taken up by cells, this leads to a build up
of glucose levels in your blood. High blood glucose level is known as hyperglycemia
and can cause health problems, such as stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, and
vision loss.

4 Summarize the insulin-glucose connection for type 1 diabetics and investigate

the cause of diabetes.

PLTW LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

a. Describe what occurs in the body of a type 1 diabetic after they
consume a carbohydrate-heavy meal. In your response, include the
following terms, underlining each:
Metabolized
Glucose
Insulin
Cell receptors
Pancreas
Energy
b. Conduct research and record two or more causes of type 1
diabetes.

More About Diabetes

Forms of Diabetes: There are multiple forms of diabetes. Cass has type 1
diabetes, which is common. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas produces little to
no insulin. Another common form is type 2 diabetes .

In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas makes insulin but the cells in the body do not
respond to it; this is known as insulin resistance. The end result is similar for
both types of diabetes: cells are not able to take in the necessary glucose to
create energy and blood glucose levels rise leading to life-threatening health
conditions. Watch how glucose and insulin levels change for non-diabetics and
for those with 1 or type 2 diabetes; notice how food choices and exercise affect
these levels:

Blood Glucose-Insulin Levels video

Reflection Questions: What observations can you make about

glucose and insulin levels for the three health scenarios? How do
food choices and exercise affect glucose and insulin levels in the
three scenarios? Share your ideas with a classmate or the class.

A National Health Crisis: Diabetes is one of the top health issues facing
Americans. Millions of individuals currently have diabetes. In the United States,
billions of dollars are spent each year on health care costs related to the
treatment of diabetes.

Disrupting Destiny: Millions of other Americans are pre-diabetic and are at

serious risk for developing the disorder in the near future. When blood sugar
levels are higher than normal, but not yet too high to cause disease, this results
in the diagnosis of prediabetes. Fortunately, this condition is reversible and
diabetes can be prevented or delayed through lifestyle changes including:
Eating a healthy diet low in carbohydrates
This limits the amount of glucose entering the bloodstream.
Increasing exercise
This stimulates your cells to convert glucose into energy to support your
activity level and reduces the amount of glucose in your body.
Weight loss
Excess glucose is stored in lipids. Losing weight reduces the amount of
glucose in your body.

You answered 3 of 4 correctly.

To pass, you need to get 4 correct.

1. All cells in the human body use sugar to produce

All cells in the human body use glucose to produce energy .

YOUR ANSWER

All cells in the human body use glucose to produce Energy .

2. Place in order the steps to the bodys use of glucose.

1. We ingest carbohydrates, and as the food is metabolized, glucose

is released.

2. Glucose enters the blood stream and makes its way to cells; blood
glucose levels rise.

3. The pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream.

4. Insulin travels through the bloodstream to cells and tells the cells
to let glucose in.

5. The cells use glucose to make energy.

YOUR ANSWER

1. The cells use glucose to make energy.

2. The pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream.

3. Glucose enters the blood stream and makes its way to cells; blood
glucose levels rise.

4. Insulin travels through the bloodstream to cells and tells the cells
to let glucose in.

5. We ingest carbohydrates, and as the food is metabolized, glucose

is released.

3. Under normal conditions, as blood glucose levels go up, insulin levels

go ___________.
YOUR
CHOICE a. Up

b. Down

4. If glucose cannot enter our cells, it remains in the bloodstream.

High levels of blood glucose is known as hyperglycemia and
can cause serious health issues.

YOUR ANSWER

If glucose cannot enter our cells, it remains in the bloodstream.

High levels of blood glucose is known as Hyperglycemia and
can cause serious health issues.

Test Yourself!

Take the Glucose-Insulin Connection Quiz.

Controlling Diabetes
Monitoring and regulating the amount of glucose in your system is very important to
your health. Normally, your body works to do this for you, but if you have diabetes,
you need to do the monitoring and regulating. The way in which our body naturally
monitors glucose levels and responds to the changing concentration is one example
of how we maintain homeostasis , or a stable internal condition.

The human body maintains homeostasis by monitoring changes in the internal and
external environment and feeding this information back to the body so that it can
make necessary changes. The control of body temperature, heart rate, and the
concentration of sugar in the blood are all regulated by these feedback mechanisms
or feedback loops (Figure 4). There are two types of feedback mechanisms: negative
feedback and positive feedback .

Terminology

Positive Feedback Causes a reinforcement of the original action. The input causes the
reaction to increase.

Negative Feedback Causes the system to stop doing the original action and to either take
no action or to perform an opposite action.

For example, when your temperate rises, sensors in your brain are stimulated
and they signal your sweat glands to become active. As the sweat evaporates,
heat is lost from the body, cooling you off.

Conversely, when you are cold, your body responds by shivering. This
contraction of muscles generates heat and raises your temperature. Body
temperature regulation is an example of a negative feedback loop (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Temperature Regulation: Example Feedback Loop

Note: In this instance, the terms positive and negative do not infer good
or bad. Instead, the terms refer to the effect the input of information
(feedback) has on the output (action) of the system.

Our body tries to maintain glucose concentrations to a very narrow range and uses
hormones, such as insulin, to accomplish this. In between meals, excess glucose is
stored in the liver. Between meals, when blood glucose levels drop, another
pancreatic hormone, glucagon , stimulates the liver to release stored glucose into
the bloodstream. This system ensures that we always have access to glucose so that
we can generate energy.

5 Create a feedback loop.

PLTW LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

a. Recreate the feedback loop diagram pictured here. Using the loop,
illustrate how your body maintains blood glucose homeostasis using
insulin, glucagon, the pancreas, and the liver.

Figure 6. Feedback Loop Template for Blood Glucose Level

b. Add information to your diagram that describes how type 1 diabetes

impacts this feedback loop.
c. After you have drafted your feedback loop, compare it with another
person’s. Discuss any discrepancies you find and modify your loop if
needed.