The age of companies entering health tech accelerators has been trending upwards, particularly as accelerators have become more comfortable with accepting medical device and life science startups in the mix. But even dbaza health gives one pause. The company, which joined DreamIt Health’s latest class of companies last month, is focused on diabetes management, and dates back to 1998.
Sergey Sirotinin, the CEO of dbaza health, said diabetes management for kids with Type 1 diabetes was the first iteration of the business. The enormous amount of information parents and children have to process about controlling the condition can be overwhelming. It created an interactive game on a CD Rom that many hospitals have adopted called Diabetes Education for Kids. It helps educate users about the choices they make in the style of a choose your own adventure, with each choice triggering different scenarios depending on things like what they choose to eat and how they can bring their insulin levels in line with what they should be.
The 2.0 version of the business, which started in 2004, is centered on adults. It has some audacious goals. Not only do the company founders want to expand their educational model to Type 2 diabetes patients, which can be much more complex than Type 1 patients, but they also see scope for expanding to other chronic conditions such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
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In an interview with Sirotinin at DreamIt Health’s Philadelphia offices, he said it’s fully aware it has some ambitious goals. But he and his co-founders decided to apply to DreamIt because it felt that its partners, such as Independence Blue Cross Blue Shield, Penn Medicine and Comcast Ventures, could validate its business model and establish strategic relationships with major players in the insurance and disease management markets.
It is already off to a good start. Among the companies the business has collaborated with in its evolution are GlaxoSmithKline (Canada), Insulet Corporation, Tandem Diabetes Care, Common Sensing, and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Through its collaboration with Joslin Diabetes Center and a medical device company, it has collected data to understand which approaches to patient engagement work with individuals. That’s informing its product development. Sirotinin added that although it has produced a platform for developing content, it’s still developing a stratification component.
One of the advantages of being around so long is that dbaza has amasssed a considerable amount of data from some of the 400,000 people who have used its educational program.
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Although it wouldn’t seem like a children’s education program would be applicable to adults, Sirotinin says it is more about the choices you give adults and the method of delivery. For example, which foods would you choose to have with alcohol, if you have Type 2 diabetes? Its platform walks users through the pros and cons of their choices.
Its target customers include insurers as well as retailers such as CVS Health which are increasingly interested in reaching people with chronic conditions.
When I ask Sirotinin about why he chose diabetes, I expect to hear about a personal connection to the condition. Instead, it’s the challenge he relishes. Type 2 diabetes is something of a gateway condition of chronic conditions because it is linked to so many. Also, if you can figure out how to help this diverse patient population better manage their condition through a personalized approach, it could clear the way to making other chronic conditions more manageable.
Sirotinin has worked for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for 15 years, but his ties to the university go back much further. Sirotinin, who hails from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, was one of the first Russian students to participate in the semester at sea program when University of Pittsburgh ran the program. He took part when the Berlin Wall was in the process of crumbling and at a time of general uncertainty. But the experience was life changing, and led him to do a mechanical engineering degree at the university. It also made him interested in harnessing the power of education as a transformative tool.
Update: This post has been updated from an earlier version.
Photo: Flickr user bodytel
