Dr. Diary, a startup that offers mobile solutions for diabetics, has received funding and support from medical accelerator Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP).
Founded in November last year, the startup has developed an app that helps diabetics manage their blood sugar levels and talk to others that have the disease. It also provides expert advice and an online store to purchase related items. Since its launch, it has become the top diabetes app on Korea’s Google Play store, with over 40,000 downloads.
Diabetes affects 1 in 19 people worldwide, and the number of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the most common form, is estimated to be 400 million. This number is on the rise, and 400 billion US dollars in medical fees are spent treating diabetes every year. As of 2014, 2.31 million people in Korea have diabetes.
One part of life that diabetics have to get used to is the tedious task of keeping track of your diet and overall condition every day. Dr. Diaries helps with this by not only letting users track their blood sugar levels throughout the day, but also lets you log meals, exercise, sleep, medication and blood pressure.
CEO Song Je-yoon’s own experience as a diabetic has been one of the reasons behind the positive response the app has received in such a short time. Since his third year of middle school, Song has had to struggle with the condition himself for over ten years, and used his experience in developing the app.
Dr. Diary makes recommendations from user data and behavior patterns and does a good job of displaying various logs so stats are easy to view. The app provides weekly and monthly reports, showing your average sugar levels on both an empty and full stomach.
As the company begins to work with DHP which specializes in medical startups, Dr. Diary will receive support from doctors who have experience treating diabetic patients.
“As Dr. Diaries is an app for diabetics, we have needed advice from medical professionals,” says Song. “Using advice from DHP’s doctors and healthcare professionals, we will offer a service that will improve the life of diabetes sufferers.”
