Big Data Versus Disease: A Modern Battle for Your Healthy Future

A recent article in Entrepreneur Magazine revealed how one tech company is using Big Data to

combat the growing scourge of diabetes in America. According to the article, there are nearly 30

million people in the United States living with diabetes. For those doing the math at home, that’s

nearly ten percent of the entire population of this country.

Treating this condition costs more than $245 billion (with a B). And “treating” is a misnomer. At

best, even with all our drugs and technology, the best we can really do is “treat” the condition. A

condition that, currently, ranks as the number 7 killer in the country.

Rick Altinger, CEO of Glooko, told Entrepreneur this is an unnecessary pandemic. He argues

that diabetes can be “properly controlled” allowing those with the condition to live “a healthy

life.” Altinger insisted people don’t have to die from diabetes.

The natural follow up question to that statement is this: How can I manage the disease

considering all the variable involved?

Enter Big Data. Managing countless variables in a real time scenario is what Big Data does.

Using data science, people can take all the factors — including blood sugar, medication, age,

weight, overall health, food intake, exercise, etc. — and come up with a comprehensive treatment

plan. One that actually works for the patient instead of on the disease.

Altinger insisted that, today, many patients are receiving what he called “suboptimal” care. His

solution? Leverage big data and analytic science to increase the results of the care. Treat the

people, not the condition.

That’s exactly what Glooko was founded to do. Since 2010, the company has been providing

health care systems and insurance providers with a diabetes-management platform that patients

can use to get information they need to better control their condition. The system includes data

about food intake, exercise and other factors to help patients make better-informed, real-time

decisions.

Better still, Glooko doesn’t cut out the doctor and give the patient a false sense of medical

superiority. It actually better equips the medical staff to understand what’s going on with the

patient when he or she is not in the office. What are their habits, really? How can those habits

become incrementally better so that the patient changes his or her negative contributing behavior,

permanently replacing it with choices that combat the condition rather than encouraging it? The

program also uses Big Data to provide patients and medical staff with real-time, on the spot data

analysis of specific incidents or patterns related to hypoglycemia monitoring. Since this is one of

the key factors in tracking and treating diabetes, having accurate, real-time data is a huge step

forward for both patients and doctors.

Further, this data-based technology gives patients and doctors an accurate, on-the-spot tool to

determine which behaviors are the most helpful or negative. Patients can see, then and there, the

consequences — good and bad — of their actions, creating a constant educational and

motivational process to get them healthier fast and keep them that way.

Roman Temkin is a real estate developer in NYC.