New age
solutions for
diabetic care
By Urvashi (Raheja) Bhattacharyya
D
iabetes may not have a
medically approved cure yet,
but it surely can be turned
a few knobs down with a
well-balanced diet, regular exercise and
medication. Of course, one should follow
doctor’s advice for a lifestyle change. In
the real world though, you look longingly
at those French fries and convince
yourself a few wouldn’t harm. Or you hit
the snooze button and tell yourself, I will
go for that long run tomorrow. And on
and on you go, till your next visit to the
Principal’s office, aka your doctor, where
you hope miraculously for an improved
report card. You are not alone my friend.
Sticking to a regime requires discipline or
an occasional reminder from your well-
wishers (if you were me). A sight towards
your goal and how far you have come
in conquering it helps matters further.
Thankfully, plenty of new-age start-ups
are here to make diabetes management
and lifestyle changes easier.
Take for instance Life In Control and
Wellthy Therapeutics. These digital
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Volume 4 | Issue 1 | January-March 2019
platforms connect patients with doctors
and coaches and provide personalized
care in terms of diet and exercise plan.
Users can create long-term health goals,
follow-up daily tasks and keep tabs on
their health profile including HbA1C and
glucose levels, track medicines intake and
understand how their daily routine affect
these measures. These start-ups also give
doctors the flexibility of reaching out to
patients outside their clinical hours as
well as to create and coach them on their
personalised care plans. In the language
of numbers, Life In Control has over 100
doctors on the platform and appears to
have helped over a lakh patients with
their app. Wellthy Therapeutics took
the approach of a pilot program with
diabetic patients and claims to have
helped reduce both HbA1C levels by
a little over 1% and an average weight
reduction of 3.4 kgs over 16 weeks. It
also got an endorsement by Asia’s largest
diabetes association, Research Society
for the Study of Diabetes in India. Both
the apps are available for download on
Android and iOS platforms.
Adding to the growing list of start-
ups are those that detect blood
glucose and connect directly to your
smartphone. BioSense SYNC, for
instance, is a compact Glucometer
with Bluetooth connectivity to a user’s
phone. It provides detailed analysis
of blood sugar data collected over
a number of days. Similar to other
diabetes management apps, a user
can map their glucose data with their
eating and exercising habits. Taking
these interventions a step further,
the start-up BeatO not only provides
a smartphone Glucometer, but also
a range of diabetic friendly food
products to munch upon. Patients can
order medicines, sync their fitness
devices and count calories on food
items consumed. As of today, BeatO
has served more than 25000 customers
with a daily user add-on of 75-100.
Most of these diabetes management
apps can instantly connect a patient
to a diabetic coach in case the sugar
levels are off, and alert the patient’s
family as well on concerning trends.