Med-tech start-up Diabetacare to expand into UK and West Asia

The company has so far rolled out services across 125 clinics in India and now plans to tap more developed markets

Diabetacare, a medical technology startup that helps people manage their diabetes through the use of technology and big data, is looking to expand its services to the UK and West-Asia. The company which is headquartered in the UK has so far rolled out its services across 125 clinics in India and now plans to tap more developed markets.

Founder Sanjiv Agarwal, who previously built one of UK's most successful tele-radiology services company, says the company will adopt a different business model abroad but will stick to its core of using technology to enable better management of diabetes.

"Doctors are not good at producing technology, they're only great consumers of technology. We therefore felt the need to build a solution that isn't just a cloud solution like the rest, but also bring in the last mile connect with patients through connected devices," said Agarwal.

In India, Diabetacare's model of doing business involves partnering with existing physicians, offering them its cloud platform for managing and monitoring patient databases, as well as connected medical device which through which patient data can be uploaded onto its platform instantaneously.

Out of the 125 centres where the company has a presence, five are experience centres run by the company itself, there are twenty fixed Diabetacare centres, and while the rest of the 100 centres are serviced by the company once a week where it deploys trained staff along with its connected device.

In the UK, where healthcare is primarily government run, the company says it will bid for tenders in order to win projects - something Agarwal has experience of doing with his previous tele-radiology firm. Diabetacare has already run a 500 patient pilot in the West Midlands region of the country.

Apart from building cloud services and connected medical devices, the company also engages in training staff or speciality nurses, and runs contact centres for monitoring of patient data. Diabetacare will offer a flexible solution to customer's abroad where medical device infrastructure is already available, letting them pick and choose just the cloud solutions if wanted. It plans to retain the contact centres serving the UK and West Asian markets in India to lower costs.

While it is looking at growing its base in other countries, Diabetacare will continue onwards in India. The company says it is seeing a lot of traction from tier 2 cities where facilities are lacking. It's primary markets of focus are South India and Delhi NCR, while it also counts its presence in the west with Mumbai and Pune.

We are not a technology company, I'd call us a healthcare company with technology in our DNA. Since we're not just providing the cloud backend, which most companies in the space do, we've been noticed. It's the last mile connect along with our endeavour to have the core team continue practising medicine that gives us an edge," added Agarwal.