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Fighting the diabetes epidemic using mobile phones
Through Jana Care, a start-up he cofounded in Bangalore, India, Sidhant Jena (SPH 2011, MBA 2011) is building affordable diagnostics and evidence-based lifestyle coaching programs on mobile phones to make diabetes management cheaper, simpler, and significantly better for the nearly 350 million people worldwide who suffer from this often-fatal disease.
With a goal of reversing “diabesity”—the twin epidemic of diabetes and obesity that is engulfing the developing world—Jana Care is building biosensors and software apps that can transform a mobile phone into a personal lab and lifestyle coach. The company has raised $500,000 through private funding and government grants.
“Diabetes is not just a medical problem, it’s a lifestyle and a social problem rooted in rapid urbanization, sedentary lives, and bad diets. It requires a holistic approach where engineers, designers, public health scientists, and clinicians work together,” says Jena, whose product is now being piloted at three major hospital centers across India. He expects US FDA approval for their product by November 2014.
(Published April 2014)
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