The Burrill Report


Many not-so-old people will remember syncing their contacts for the first time from a smartphone to “the cloud.” Irreplaceable data once held hostage on less capable cell phones was suddenly made easy to keep in sync with computers, accessible on the Web, and easier to share with others.

Diabetics have faced a similar issue logging the four to five blood glucose level readings they must take each day to manage their disease. While some glucometers, such as Sanofi’s iBGStar and Telcare’s Diabetes Pal are easing the hassle of logging readings for buyers of their glucometers, Glooko, a Palo Alto, California startup is rapidly expanding the number of other glucometers that can connect with smartphones and the web.

While Glooko launched with support only for iPhones, serving users of Android-based smartphones, who account for a little more than half the United States’ smartphone subscribers, is the next big hurdle for the company. With its Diabetes Management System for Android poised to gain clearance soon from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the company is set to gain broad access to a new set of potential customers.

Glooko’s users connect their glucometer and iPhone with the company’s $40 MeterSync Cable to download meter readings and add them to its iPhone app, which synchronizes with Glooko’s web dashboard. From there, diabetics, doctors, and health coaches can review it for trends and trouble.

“Payers today engage in disease management initiatives all the time. But often they’re somewhat flying blind,” says Glooko CEO Rick Altinger. With Glooko, a health coach can potentially use the company’s dashboard to review a log of a diabetic’s blood glucose level over time and catch them at timely teachable moments where they can try to educate patients and talk to them about changing medication or exercise habits.

While plenty of consumers abandon new health data tracking devices within months of purchasing them, Altinger says that diabetics who have tried Glooko have largely stuck with it. Half of the people who use the company’s MeterSync cable and tracking software are still actively using Glooko 90 days after their first use, and Altinger expects that percentage to grow as more diabetics gain access to the device through future partnerships with healthcare payers and providers.

The company has already been working with Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute and Altinger says partnerships with other healthcare providers are on the horizon. Many of those partners have expressed interest in encouraging diabetics to not only log their blood glucose data but to change their behaviors based on that information. That has led to discussions with payers who are considering programs in which Glooko users might earn reduced or eliminated co-pays for medical services or products, Amazon.com gift cards, or gain other tangible rewards, Altinger says.

Glooko is not without competition. Pleasanton, California-based Biomedtrics officially launched its Ditto Glucose Data System in mid-October, featuring a Bluetooth device that connects by cable to nine blood glucose meters to wirelessly transmit readings to an electronic logbook app and the company’s web site. Wireless capability is in Glooko’s future too, says Altinger.

The true benefits of Glooko, Ditto, and other diabetes logging services will require further research to prove their value. But the prognosis is good: according to the journal Diabetes Spectrum, a systematic review of telemonitoring interventions in adults with diabetes showed positive effects on clinical outcomes and a positive impact on patient and clinician behavior.



October 25, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-glooko_awaits_fda_nod_to_expand_diabetes_data_service.html