Just think it over first – Diabetes caused 4.6 million deaths in 2011. 366 million people across the globe are suffering from Diabetes and in the next 18 years, the intensification will reach 552 million people. Unfortunately, 78,000 children develop diabetes every year. Now, here comes the big shock – 70% of diabetic patients are NOT self-monitoring their blood glucose daily. So, what’s causing those people to avoid a one-minute daily monitoring exercise which could prevent them from death?
What’s Diabeto?
A Pune-based Tech-Startup – Diabeto– apparently got the real nerve and has come out with a solution that could possibly relax the ‘self-monitoring-challenge’ till a significant extent – if can’t kill diabetes. A seamlessly integrated model of Hardware and Mobile App, Diabeto allows patients to transfer and manage their daily diabetic records to their smartphone wirelessly from Glucometer without much effort.
“The biggest challenge for Diabetic patients is to maintain and manage their daily monitored records. This is resulting in improper physically maintained medical transcriptions only to strain Doctors in order to diagnose patients effectively. As Diabetes is also scoring among children, it’s become more complex for doctors to treat many such children who are faking their records to avoid pills and treatment” says Shreekant Pawar, Co-Founder and CMO of Diabeto.
Why Smartphone As Storage?
Smartphones are rapidly replacing feature phones and mobile users have started leaning towards it. Interestingly, smartphones will account for 67% of total mobile handset shipments by 2016. That could be the reason, Diabeto management got fascinated with the business model which is largely influenced by (and dependent on) the smartphone as a data storage device to maintain all records in the electronic form transmitted through Diabeto hardware dongle wirelessly. Intelligently, The app comes free with the Diabeto Dongle – an effort to en-cash the freemium model as 89% of global 45.6 billion app downloads are free in 2012 !!!
Though many could debate over the point as Cloud storage has got a larger number for e-Storage, Diabeto management is committed to keeping the whole setup independent.
“We don’t want to make mobile internet as statutory requirement for Diabeto. This could unease many potential people who want to own Diabeto but don’t want to stuck with complex maintenance and data- access scenario. Having said that, Cloud storage is definitely under progress plan and shortly it would be available as an extension of storage” says Hemanshu Jain – Co-Founder and COO of Diabeto.
Probably, under-the-hood activities are already on and Cloud Storage companies like DropBox, Kepplr, and a few others would strategically handle the statement of Hemanshu.
Grey Areas Still Need Cleanup
Though the whole business model looks promising, there is no startup that never heard the ‘not-so-pleasant’ tune. The story of Diabeto is no different as due to the involvement of healthcare and medical complexity, it needs to pass through various certifications, verification, and approvals – if not many leaps and bounces as Startup. Other issues such as legal problems with diabetes drugs (things like the suspected link between Januvia and cancer) can add to the complexity. Still a week away from the official launch, Diabeto has already raised $75,000 as an Angel investment from various sources.
However, the bigger challenge is to ‘sustain’, as the business model needs big-big investment due to the involvement of hardware manufacturing cost, claims Shreekant.
Here is the full-length exclusive interview of Sreekant and Hemanshu that showcases their conception of the idea, journey so far, challenges, and future goals.
Diabetes Facts Source: IDF
