Meet Glooko: Diabetes Monitoring on an iPhone
Glooko meter and app
It has become evident that in today’s world, technology is advancing rapidly even as we speak. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a great example of how entrepreneurs are building “not for today but for the future,” which was apparent in this years showcase.
A key issue in these conferences is finding a linkage between health and the use of technology to essentially help people live longer. One company that stood out in this year’s conference is, Glooko, a Palo-Alto based startup co-founded by Yogen Dalal, Sundeep Madra, and Anita Mathew. The company’s main objective is to help people with diabetes successfully monitor their glucose levels in a way that is efficient and manageable while utilizing the highest form of modern technology.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), 26.8 million (8% of the population) adults and children are living with this illness. As an organization their main objective is similar to that of Glooko, which is to put people in control by providing them with all the possible resources. Diabetes can lead to a serious of health issues if left untreated something that these start-ups want to avoid since people with diabetes founded the majority of them. Another issue confronting patients are the costs accumulating in hospital visits and health insurance. The ADA stated in their National Diabetes Fact Sheet that the costs for diabetes in 2007 averaged to $218 billion, an amount that has been increasing in the following years. However, with new advancements in the medical field we are slowly observing how many of these numbers are slowly decreasing.
Technology in the health sector is in essence placing the control in our hands and giving us the opportunity to understand diseases much better. Glooko, for instance, has created a device, MeterSync, that connects a cable from your meter to your smartphone and instantly downloads all your data into a logbook. In essence, Glooko Logbook allows you to do an array of things with your data that includes and not limited to daily analysis as well as monthly summaries of your glucose intakes. This gives patients the ability to share their data and stay well connected with their doctors. Also, you can observe in different periods of the day how daily activities are affecting your blood glucose as well as allowing you to check glucose levels after meals. This is a device that ultimately allows you to virtually become your own doctor for a reasonable price of $40 dollars.
Users download the free Glooko app on their smartphones and fully engage in all the resources that Glooko offers. Such tools include: finding the nutritional value of different foods, up-to-date news on diabetes, viewing blood glucose readings, etc. This is just the beginning for the company whose investors include former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya and CISCO co-founder Judy Estrin, who have help the company raise over 3.5 million dollars.
According to Dr. Venancio Diaz, a family physician in Madrid who has worked with diabetic patients, this product presents a lot of advantages. He states that, “it allows the patient the right to know all information regarding their health,” and further says that, “this is perfect for those who have minimal contact with health facilities because of distance issues.” However, he thinks the product is more advantageous for those patients that in the past have been careless when it came to their health.
People can access this application through all of Apple’s iPhone products and they are currently in the works of creating an application for the Android market. In the upcoming years, the market should expect to witness a growth in digital health devices. Stay Tuned!
Do you think that there are disadvantages to relying too much on technology? Are we setting up ourselves for more problems or is this the future?
Emilio can be reached at velaemilio2@gmail.com
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