This app may soon be validated by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to be used as a supplement that can be prescribed by doctors only
When 38-year-old diabetic Vishal’s sugar levels plummeted from 250 mg/dL to 70 mg/dL, he got a frantic phone call from his relatives saying that he should immediately consult his doctor and consider going for change in medications. Vishal (name changed), who was earlier not conscious of the kind of food he would eat, had turned a new leaf over the past few weeks as he started using Wellthy — a mobile phone-based application, which talks you into making lifestyle alterations if you have diabetes. Vishal’s relatives were sent an alert by the app, which has provisions to save emergency numbers.
Abhishek Shah, 33, Wellthy’s CEO explains, “Vishal’s sugar precariously dropped as he was religiously following Wellthy’s advice and had made appropriate modifications in his diet and lifestyle. Coupled with high dose medications, his sugar would run the risk of dropping further, beneath the lower threshold. This is why we are aiming at making the application such that it should be used following doctor’s prescription only. Here we are dealing with patients and we run a risk,”said Shah.
The app is being validated by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to be used as a supplement that can be prescribed by doctors. “Once all the approvals come through, a unique code will be available at pharmacies to help activate the app. The code will only be made available to the customer if he has a doctor’s prescription,”said Shah.
In the app, Carey, an artificial intelligence-based bot which mimics a human counsellor, chats with the diabetic and handholds the patient through their day. It motivates patients to log their diet, their sugar levels, their weight, and exercise routines.
Shah and his team carried out a pilot study on 42 diabetic patients between the age group of 32 and 65 years and observed that for most patients, after the intervention of the app, the sugar levels had dropped. “Average sugar levels for three months is counted through HbAC1 count. It dropped on an average from 9.06 per cent to 8.52 per cent. One patient had recorded very high levels at 11.7 per cent, whichdropped to 8.6 per cent, and is huge progress,”said Shah. “While using the app, the pilot group had no change in medication dose. Thus we could validate that app could help in controlling sugar.”
Patients as young as 32 years were enrolled for the pilot study which was conducted only on those who had acquired lifestyle-related Type II diabetes. “The age of new diabetics in India is reducing. These days youngsters in thirties are being detected with high sugar,” Shah added.
“My blood sugar levels dropped from 184 mg/dL to 60 mg/dL using the app. It used to wake me up with a good morning message and kept talking to me on a chat window just like a friend,”said Neeraj Vajpayee, one of the pilot participants in his forties.
“We are studying if smartphones can be used as behavioural change agents and if artificial intelligence can provide paramedic support to doctors,” said Shah.
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