Kevin McMahon and his company, Diabetech, are to diabetes what Blackberry is to corporate America: easy connections, anytime, anywhere.
In 2001, McMahon’s daughter, Darby, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 2. He spent countless hours asking questions, faxing diet and exercise regimens, and logging blood sugar levels. McMahon, whose career was in technology sales, thought there had to be an easier way.
“I’m flying around the world, explaining how to use a wireless PDA for [a living],” he remembers. “So I start looking for how to use this for diabetes. Where is this thing? I’ll just buy it.”
“It” wasn’t out there. So in 2002, McMahon developed the GlucoMON, bringing a patient’s data to a patient’s caretaker immediately. Now, when Darby’s teacher tests her blood sugar, he gets an immediate reading on his cell phone.
GlucoMON has evolved to mirror the three focuses of Diabetech:
1. Mobile data: Diabetech monitors blood sugar trends weekly. “Doctors are seeing the patient twice a year for five minutes, while the patient is making 50 decisions a day,” McMahon says. “Who really affects the outcome?”
2. Intelligent rules engine: Using your data, Diabetech sends tips and “mobile education” to help you better make those 50 decisions.
3. Social networking: Who is in your network that needs educating? “The most influential guy is the guy next to you who suggested the wrong restaurant,” McMahon says.
“Much of the energy in the medical community has been toward finding cures and emergency situations,” says board member Fran Dramis. “Active disease management is something that is still not using leading-edge technology.”
McMahon quit a high-paying job to work 90-hour weeks when he started Diabetech, hawking an idea that hasn’t always paid the bills. Could he sell it to a big company and retire? Maybe. But he probably won’t.
“There’s a time when all the money and all the technology in the world doesn’t make as much difference as the passion,” Dramis says. “It gets you through the time when the world isn’t moving as fast as you want it to move. Kevin has that.”
