DarioHealth’s (NASDAQ:DRIO) diabetes managed care platform covers all facets of the disease, with a blood glucose device coupled directly to a patient’s smartphone to provide 100% data-capturing, real-time insights, personalized health guidance and professional coaching.
“We are one of few solutions in the market that have a full comprehensive diabetes management platform that addresses a full coverage of data-driven monitoring, disease management and personalized coaching,” Erez Raphael, chairman and CEO, says in an interview with BioTuesdays.
“This is how we guide people through their daily challenges with diabetes and how we differentiate ourselves from competing data monitoring and cloud applications,” he adds.
The platform also can be customized to cover all facets of management and care for Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes.
Mr. Raphael explains that DarioHealth, which was founded in 2011, invented a very small piece of electronic that fits into a smartphone and can turn a smartphone into a blood glucose monitor for 100% real-time data capture.
The MyDario kit, which has received regulatory approval in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia, includes the electronic device, proprietary testing strips and a lancet to draw a pinhead amount of blood.
The personalized logbook and statistics can provide personalized digital guidance for a patient’s insulin dose, for example, and user-controlled sharing with healthcare providers for what a patient should do next.
In addition, he says the company’s managed care solution offers cloud storage of all data and automated data-drive guidance to improve patients’ outcomes. And the final facet of the platform includes collaboration with professional coaching.
“We are moving from periodic data collection to continuous data, from general treatment to personalized treatment, and from theory-driven solutions to adapted data, and artificial intelligence and machine learning technology,” he points out.
The approach seems to be working. DarioHealth reported revenue of almost $1.4-million for the third quarter of 2017, up from $1.2-million for the second quarter.
Mr. Raphael says the company is guiding for 2017 revenue of about $5-million, up from $2.8-million for 2016, and will see growth continue in fourth quarter results. “We have multiple growth drivers and are forecasting strong sequential revenue growth going forward.”
The MyDario kit is fully reimbursed in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands, with partial insurance coverage in the U.S., where the kit sells for an average price of $59. The company also recently launched the product in Germany.
“The Dario app is the best data management system that I’ve seen. ”
In a 2018 survey, Top Ten Reviews selected Dario has having the glucometer with the best data management app. The app is well designed and easy to navigate, Top Ten said, adding that it has animations that let you know it’s reading your sample, and the display is only limited by the size of your smartphone’s screen.
“This makes it far superior to other glucometers in terms of visibility – the numbers are big, and the screen is colorful but with enough contrast that it’s not distracting,” the product review site said.
According to an American Diabetes Association survey in 2013, an individual with diabetes plus complications can cost the health care system almost $21,000 a year.
“Studies have shown that Dario’s 1% reduction in HbA1c (a three-month average of blood glucose levels) can yield substantial savings to insurers of $80-to-$100 per patient per month,” Mr. Raphael suggests.
The Journal of mHealth named DarioHealth to its Global Digital Health 100 for 2017, which recognizes health technology companies that are demonstrating the greatest potential to change the way that health care is delivered.
Last month, the company agreed to run and track the blood glucose readings of participants in a pharmaceutical company’s clinical study to obtain FDA clearance for a new drug to manage diabetes.
Mr. Raphael says the initial adoption of the company’s blood glucose monitoring system in clinical study contract will not only broaden its revenue stream beyond the device and strip business, but will enable the company to continue developing new product and services.
“Our vision for the future includes more solutions that pick up where our monitoring system ends and assisting a pharmaceutical company in their clinical study will help us launch this,” he contends.
The company initially began selling MyDario directly to consumers and then expanded its sales channels to pharmacies, and physician and employer groups in the U.S. “Our near-term growth strategy is to increase sales of products and services through additional B2B employer markets and health partners,” Mr. Raphael says.
Dario is a personalized, pocket-sized, all-in-one glucose meter coupled with a robust real time mobile app to manage diabetes quickly, efficiently and accurately
The company’s current subscription services averages $25 a month and includes the device and three-month shipments of test strips, which is competitive with most insurers’ co-pays.
“Service is becoming an increasing contributor to revenue,” Mr. Raphael suggests, adding that by 2019, DarioHealth hopes to generate $35-to-$55 a month from the average user by offering a coaching platform to employers and insurers plus additional digital services as well as offering the open platform to clinicians.
“We currently have access to 11% of the diabetes population globally and our growth strategy through 2019, is to expand our footprint in Europe,” he says. Beyond that, DarioHealth hopes to support additional chronic conditions, such as heart disease, obesity, prediabetes and weight loss, to significantly expand its market opportunity.
Mr. Raphael says the company also plans to capitalize on a massive reservoir of data it collects for users each year. “We have developed Dario Intelligence to transform Big Data and build predictive models and artificial intelligence to meet the demands of intelligence-driven healthcare providers in the 21st century. This opens major opportunities in the area of chronic disease management for researchers and technology innovators, including management of electronic medical records, to harness the power of real-time and predictive-based health solutions.”
• • • • •
To connect with Dario, or any of the other companies featured on BioTuesdays, send us an email at [email protected].
