EasyDiabetes.com

The media is full of news about young computer-literate types making fabulous sums of money with their ideas. But the internet is more than just making money. So, the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, set up a competition for the most socially-useful idea for a business. The winning business plan was submitted by two medical students and a business man, who wanted to form a web site for diabetic patients, their families, and their doctors. Intrigued, I interviewed Jenna Beart and Michael Douek to find out more.

Tell us a little bit about the history of your project.

Michael - This company was founded by three individuals, Brian Ring, a graduate from the Wharton School of Management; Jenna Beart, an MD/MBA candidate from UCLA and a Type I diabetic; and myself, Michael Douek, also an MD/MBA candidate from UCLA. It comes from our personal experiences with diabetes. Jenna herself has had Type I diabetes for ten years and my younger brother for more than 15 years. We have seen first hand the difficulties that patients face and the shortcomings of the current US healthcare system in addressing diabetics' needs. This business was a natural product of our experiences. We have been developing the concept for easyDiabetes over the past year and hope to have a fully developed system up and running by the end of the summer.

Jenna - Brian and I first came up with the idea about a year and a half ago. We had just started dating and Brian was very interested in learning about diabetes, and specifically helping me track all of my blood sugar values (I'm Type I x 11 years). As we started talking about it, we realized that the difficulty of communication between patients and doctors around diabetes data. At this time (September 1998) Brian was a 2nd year at Wharton (U Penn) business school. He spent a good part of the year researching the diabetes industry and potential use of a tool for physicians and patients like the one we created. He graduated in the spring and wanted to pursue the business full-time but I still had another year of school (MD/MBA program) left. Mike - Brian's best friend from childhood, high school & college - was in the same situation as I was in terms of school. Mike also has an interest in diabetes - his brother has been type 1 for 15 years.

It's interesting that Jenna has IDDM-1 - how would you have benefited if you had easyDiabetes at your disposal, when first diagnosed?

Jenna - We hope that easyDiabetes will greatly simplify the management of diabetes for patients and their healthcare providers. We also hope that our system will create a supportive community for diabetics, easing some of the loneliness associated with this disease.

Let me ask you a little more about the interaction between doctor and diabetic. How do your see your site helping with this?

Michael - we believe that our service will greatly simplify:

1) data exchange between patients and their healthcare team, and

2) communication, feedback, coaching, and support between these two parties.

Would you do this as an online portal, or are there off-line parts as well?

Michael - Purely as an online portal.

And as a patient, what would I find there?

Michael - Some of these things we can't talk about in great detail... but we'll do our best... broadly you would find tools to help better manage and analyze your diabetes data and a forum for support.

Recently the stock market has been punishing dotcoms in general, and health dotcoms in particular - for example drkoop's troubles. Has the valley been receptive to you?

Jenna - well, we've raised 20% of our seed funding and we haven't really started trying. We've had some folks say, "I could've written you a check 8 weeks ago but now things are tight." That's the market in general here. In spite of market fluctuations, we feel confident that the internet is here to stay and will be a useful tool for healthcare delivery.

Your actual degree is a combined MD/MBA program - this is a little new to British ears. Tell us a little bit about that.

Michael - the combined MD/MBA degree is new to American ears as well. Our university UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) is one of only about 4 universities in the States offering a formal combined program. And the program at UCLA is new... Jenna and I are just graduating from the first cohort class of the combined program.

What has it allowed you to achieve?

Michael - The practice of medicine is a complex endeavor these days, riddled with clinical questions, economic questions, and political questions. The joint degree will help us better navigate this complicated terrain... hopefully the end result will be better care for patients.

How is it structured - and do you think it should be copied back here?

Michael - I don't think there is uniformity in curriculum among all MD/MBA programs, but at UCLA... basically 3 years of medical school as normal; 1 year of business school with the first year MBA students, and then a final combined year... 6 months of medical school and then three or four months of business school... a busy five years, but well worth it.... And yes, I think it could be easily copied there.

Are the others in the course also interrupting for their killer-ideas?

Jenna - We started with 7 folks - lost one to investment banking, 2 of us are temporarily pursuing easyDiabetes.com and the other 4 are going to residency (OB/GYN , ER, Family medicine).

A lot of doctors I've met worry that computers introduce another distance between them and their patients. What would you say to them?

Michael - I don't think their fears are unfounded... in a world that's increasingly complex and hurried and which constantly imposes technology as an intermediary to human contact, the human experience is often at jeopardy. The great challenge is to use technology prudently and appropriately and to employ technology to enhance, not detract, from the human experience. We firmly believe that our service was designed with this goal in mind. Our aim is to bring patients together closer with other patients, and with their support team.

Interview with Jenna Beart, Michael Douek and Brian Ring