Diabetes is not something you can wish away any more or slyly sweep under the carpet. The facts stare at you in the face: diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death in the world, according to WHO.
After China, India has the largest number of persons with diabetes. While, over the years, access to affordable gluco-meters has eased the process of taking sugar readings at home, here is something that technology has provided for patients to keep track of their blood sugar levels.
Diabetois, a non-intrusive bluetooth hardware device, facilitates the transfer of glucose readings from a regular gluco-meter into a specially developed Android app. The readings can then be analysed easily with the help of the application. Patients can select time frames, analyse the shifts and even email the sugar level graph to doctors.
“Being diabetic is more than just medicines and doctor visits. It is also about managing the condition and ensuring that sugar levels are monitored regularly,” says Shreekant Pawar, Co-Founder of Diabeto. “Diabeto makes managing diabetes less stressful.”
The app is a tiny bird-shaped device that has been designed with ease of use in mind. “It easily fits in your palm and can be used not only by patients with diabetes but also diabetics with motor disabilities, visual impairment, senior citizens and even children with type1 diabetes,” Mr. Pawar says.
The best way of handling diabetes is to ensure the appropriate levels of blood sugar. This can be challenging because these readings need to be recorded physically. Often, they either get lost or are destroyed, making treatment difficult. Sometimes, many have to check their sugar levels as often as six times a day. Diabeto enables these readings to be seamlessly shifted from your gluco-meter. These are then analysed by an android application which also lets patients select the time frame, besides emailing the shifts in sugar graphs to your doctor. “There are many diabetes management apps out there,” says Mr. Pawar. “But they involve the manual entry of data. Here we integrate hardware and software to ensure electronic entries. A single Diabeto device can be used by a number of people.”
Marketing the product meant ensuring quality certifications and compatibility with commonly used glucose measurement devices. The Diabeto team plans to integrate the device with other hospital and health records management software in the future. Visit http://diabe.to/ for more information.
