A team of endocrinologists and a clinical pediatrics instructor have developed a Web-based intelligent analytics tool to organize the massive amount of data diabetics gather to monitor their activities, diet and blood glucose levels, and assembles it into an easy-to-read format. The idea is to minimize what amounts to data fatigue for patients.
The problem is so many of the devices patients use have their own software that risks overwhelming patients with information. Greendot’s program harnesses the disparate software using an intelligent analytics platform and assembles it into an intuitive format, according to the company. That way, users can see the connection between practices that improve their health and practices that don’t. It is one of five proposals under consideration for the Sanofi US Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge.
The target users are adolescents. The idea is to encourage responsible attitudes toward their health to improve the chances that they will maintain those attitudes as adults.
“It’s really about focusing users on data that matters and drowning out the noise” said Dr. Aaron Neinstein, an endocrinology fellow at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and a co-founder of Greendot. The startup is a finalist in Sanofi’s innovation challenge focusing on diabetes.
“It not only creates a lot of work, but patients get tired of doing it; they collect information and a lot of times they don’t know what it means or [how to interpret it]. Originally, it was to save us time, but we figured if it’s easier for us, it would be easier for patients,” Neinstein said.
For each of the four participants, Greendot is their first startup. After having secured a grant from the hospital, the clinical translational science institute mobile health research consultation award, the company is planning to roll out a pilot program at their hospital. In addition to Neinstein, the company includes pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Saleh Adi; Yao Sun, an associate professor of clinical pediatrics; and Jenise Wong, a clinical instructor in pediatric endocrinology.
“We see patients every day in clinics and it is a challenge to find time to meet with the team to work on the program, but this competition has helped make this concept more realistic for us,” Neinstein said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Sanofi US’s (NYSE:SNY) innovation challenge Demo Day is scheduled for May 16 in New York City.
