Revolutionizing Chronic Health Management: Leveraging IoT, AI, and Integrated Solutions for Enhanced User Compliance and Healthcare Outcomes
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Kunal Kinalekar, CTO & Co-Founder, BeatO
- Can you explain a specific instance where you leveraged IoT devices and software implementation to drive user compliance and enhance the monitoring of chronic health conditions? What were the key challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?
The BeatO ecosystem leverages the connected glucometer alongside its app ecosystem, which allows the user to track their blood glucose readings and, with the data, identifies the health evolution to provide its decision support systems to the user and also enables the doctors, nutritionists and health coaches to deliver personalized insights and interventions. The delivery of insights and interventions to consumers has been one of the strongest reasons for better compliance. It has improved the frequency of monitoring, leading to improved health conditions for all our users.
The key challenge BeatO faces is the misinformation about diabetes and the possible health management and outcomes that might exist for the user. Education and counselling about diabetes through our published blogs, social media posts, doctors, and nutritionists have been key drivers to overcome this challenge. Our AI tools – The Reading Frequency Recommender and Lifestyle Score, have supported our consumers as self-help tools. Our studies published in various medical journals done with thousands of users with diabetic conditions and their treatment and health progression have also been able to showcase possibilities for others with similar conditions and inspire confidence to undertake the journey themself.
- In developing your Intelligent AI-powered healthcare telematics platform, what were the primary considerations you made in terms of communication protocol, firmware, SDK, and hardware structure for IoT devices? How did these decisions contribute to the seamless experience for users?
Building an intelligent AI-powered healthcare telematics platform is a complex undertaking, particularly regarding the choice of foundational technologies and their impact in the long run, not just on the evolution of the solution but also on the end user. Some of the considerations were:
Communication Protocol – Security of the data from the source of hardware to various tools used in the ecosystem. We also prioritized protocols optimized for low bandwidth, low power operations, and data interoperability across multiple platforms.
Firmware – Again, security is a key factor as the firmware residing on the device must be self-sufficient to protect the data. We also optimised it to make it lightweight and easy to update as and when required with the evolving risk assessment.
SDK – The major factor for SDK was being cross-platform compatible as our ecosystem depends on being available to our users on all possible mobile OS. It also needs to have robust APIs that allow for better interoperability within the ecosystem.
Hardware – Since the hardware was the final product the user consumed, durability, robustness, and ease of use were the primary factors in our decision-making.
Since the BeatO ecosystem was built in-house from the ground up, and with the consideration we made on various aspects of this system, it allowed us to have complete control of how the hardware performed and communicated with the cloud-based app, it also allowed us to keep updating and evolving the solution where we could see challenges for the users without needed to bring back any devices or stop the user from utilising any of the services and in the background make the experience better over time from the learnings.
- Could you discuss a notable achievement in creating an ecosystem comprising mobile and web applications, condition-monitoring hardware devices, GCP-based IoT solutions, and data analytics-driven insights? How did this integrated approach enhance the overall healthcare solution?
The biggest challenge for the user with chronic conditions is to manage the condition and the information relating to the evolution in its entirety. Usually, a user without any help from a solution like BeatO would lean on maintaining data offline and in a fragmented manner and also would miss the correlation of various important factors on the overall progression and hence would only consider those aspects that they might feel of importance to be taken a note of or speak about to the Doctor and his healthcare team. This is where BeatO’s ecosystem of connected monitoring, mobile and web-based applications, data-driven analytics, and insights, alongside its intervention protocol, helps the most. The user would not have to manage any piece of data in fragments but depend on BeatO not just to monitor but also to correlate and provide a comprehensive understanding of the one’s chronic condition. This solution, in extension, also allows doctors and healthcare professionals to have a detailed understanding of the user’s state and assist in the medical approach that can better treat the condition.
- As a CTO, how do you ensure alignment between technology initiatives and business objectives? Can you provide an example of how you’ve successfully interconnected business goals with technology to drive growth and user engagement?
One of the most critical aspects of being a CTO is ensuring strategic alignment between technology initiatives and broader business objectives. My approach to solving the overlap is two-fold.
From the business end:
– Have a deep understanding of the business goals and what needs to be achieved. Ask basic questions to understand the questions better, like: What is the vision for the feature/solution? What are the KPIs that are targeted, what are the pain points it is solving, and what competitive advantage does it provide?
– Provide a clear and direct channel for communication – it is important that there are strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization and that I understand their priorities and challenges.
From the technology end:
– Being able to convert the business requirements to technical requirements is as important as the solution itself. Clearer and well-aligned tech requirements serve as the groundwork for solutions that require minimum iteration.
– Agile development methods allow flexibility to accommodate changes, updates or iterations in shorter time frames.
– Keeping a tap on the data and KPI across the board – This allows me to make choices which best work to meet business goals and also allows me to isolate problems and iterate on solutions with a faster turnaround.
As a part of a startup, my day-to-day is filled with this. Still, one example would be the comprehensive Diabetes Care Program, which is now a very strong offering from BeatO, built from the ground up and provides a solution which is unlike anything else in the industry. The program is the only one that encompasses a propriety-connected glucometer that allows the user to monitor the blood glucose regularly, which then builds up to data-driven insights customised to each user as per their health data and its evolution, which leads to comprehensive care and real-time intervention provided by Diabetologist, Nutritionist and health coach tailor specifically to the user. This solution required stakeholder collaboration to build a tool with technology that worked for all internal and external users, and none of it was partnered but built in-house.
- Managing security protocols such as ISO 27001 is critical in today’s technological landscape. Can you share your approach to maintaining compliance with ISMS objectives while also fostering innovation in your technology solutions?
Absolutely! The need to balance robust security protocols with fostering innovation is a delicate act, particularly within the sensitive area of healthcare. Hence, in our approach to managing compliance with ISMS objectives, specifically with ISO 27001 in mind, while encouraging safe, transformative healthcare innovation, we follow a framework that works for us. Some of the aspects of our framework include:
– Keeping all stakeholders involved right from the beginning from the point of view of security concerns that might arise. This allows us to prebuild secure protocols rather than adopt solutions later.
– Architecting and designing as per those protocols that were defined for data security.
– Updating risk assessment regularly with new tools deployed in the ecosystem to keep everything in check.
– Using various in-built, pre-built or Saas-based platforms to assess risk across the board.
– Cloud-based solutions should be adopted only after they completely fit the business and security needs.
– We should regularly educate everyone involved on evolving risk and mitigation methods so we can build from what we learn.
