After more than 70 years of developing tools for diabetes management, Ascensia Diabetes Care is taking its talents to the cloud.
The company is expanding its offerings to include an online platform that connects to any blood glucose monitoring system to store, track and analyze the collected data, then automatically shares those findings with patients, their caregivers and healthcare teams.
GlucoContro.online represents a major upgrade—both technologically and in terms of usability—to Ascensia’s previous forays into digital diabetes management. One such platform, Glucofacts Deluxe, required all glucose meters to be connected to a computer via USB cable, and its reports had to be either printed or deliberately downloaded and emailed to healthcare teams.
GlucoContro.online, meanwhile, connects wirelessly to Ascensia’s Contour glucose meters, collecting data through the Contour app and cloud; other glucose meters can still connect to the platform with a USB cable. The browser-based software also includes separate web apps for patients, caregivers and healthcare providers, allowing anyone permitted by the patient to automatically access the data and generate interactive, color-coded reports.
Additionally, new users can install the platform using only a QR code or a one-click online invitation, significantly cutting down on onboarding times.
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“[GlucoContro.online] has been borne out of clearly defined unmet needs from both healthcare professionals and people with diabetes. From its simple installation through to the functions that enable quick and easy access and analysis of data, it provides a valuable and uncomplicated way to share and use blood glucose and other data to help clinicians and people optimize their diabetes management,” Rob Schumm, president of Ascensia Diabetes Care, said in a release.
Information processed by the platform includes blood glucose measurements, insulin dosing, food and activity. Ascensia also designed GlucoContro.online to eventually be able to connect to and analyze data from other digital health devices including smart scales and wearable trackers from Fitbit, Apple, Google and more.
Ascensia plans to make the platform available in all 58 countries in which the Contour app is currently available, after initially piloting it in Spain and Saudi Arabia. To start, it will be rolled out in a handful of central and eastern European countries, plus Italy, Ireland and the U.K., all by the end of the third quarter of this year.
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Ascensia—which was formed after Panasonic Healthcare Holdings purchased Bayer’s diabetes care division for $1.1 billion in 2016—faces some stiff competition in the realm of online diabetes management.
In the last year alone, Teladoc put down $18.5 billion to take over Livongo and bring its diabetes management and coaching platform to Teladoc’s 70 million customers; Eli Lilly & Co. inked deals to link its connected insulin pen system to disease management tools and platforms from Roche, Dexcom, myDiabby Healthcare and Glooko; Glooko itself, a past partner of Ascensia, raised $30 million to continue growing its free software, which is currently used by more than 3 million users in 27 countries.