04-14-2022 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 14
H E A LT H Y L I V I N G
BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY Howard Magazine
Patients obtain an access code for the BlueStar app by Columbia-based Welldoc from their doctors to monitor their health.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WELLDOC
Staying on target
Columbia-based Welldoc helps patients manage diabetes, hypertension and heart failure
Star application on his mobile phone automatically pulls
Anand Iyer was jetting around the world for his job
up a list of nearby restaurants that won’t send his blood
as a management consultant in 2007, leapfrogging geoglucose and cholesterol levels skyrocketing. It even takes
graphical boundaries, cultures and time zones, landing
the guesswork out of ordering off the menu by
in cities with which he was totally unfamiliar.
calling up a list of healthy dishes served at the
That made it nearly impossible to safeguard his
restaurant of his choice.
health.
The result?
“I was never eating at the right time or exerIyer’s average blood glucose level dropped
cising when I should,” said Iyer, who had been
and is now consistently in the safe range. If it
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes five years earlier.
weren’t for Welldoc, Iyer thinks, he would be on
“It was hard to make sure I was taking my meds
insulin by now.
at the right time.”
“I can’t state that scientifically,” said Iyer, who
As a result of the unpredictable nature of
Anand Iyer
now is Welldoc’s chief strategy officer, “But I
Iyer’s lifestyle, his blood glucose level was worrisomely high.
When he enrolled in a clinical trial for an online
program created by Welldoc, a Columbia-based health
care technology company founded in 2005, it was quite
literally life-changing. Now, when Iyer travels, the Blue-
14 | SPRING 2022 | howardmagazine.com
believe it in my heart.”
The company aims to help adults manage such
chronic diseases as diabetes, hypertension, and heart
failure. Welldoc markets its digital programs to health
insurance companies; patients obtain an access code for