Lifesaver for diabetics

As technology continues to transform the way people around the world conduct their day-to-day activities, it’s easy to see why something like diabetes management is also being transformed by technology. Lifewatcher, a revolutionary service from Mobile Healthcare Inc, is a self-management application that helps patients monitor their health simply by using their cell phone and PC.

Lifewatcher is the brainchild of James Nakagawa, a third generation Japanese-Canadian. Born in Toronto, Nakagawa graduated with a double major in Political Science and Theatre from York University and first came to Japan in 1990. He began working on Lifewatcher in 2003. Initially, he got a good response from some major companies. Apple Computer provided hardware and software support, while McDonald’s, Mos Burger and Denny’s, among others, provided nutritional data information on their menus. In addition, the Japanese Red Cross was an early supporter.

For the past five years, Nakagawa has continued to develop and promote this application that revolutionizes the way diabetic patients monitor their health. In Japan alone, the health ministry estimates that about 18.7 million people are suffering from diabetes.

Japan Today reporter Erika Aragon catches up with Nakagawa to hear more about Lifewatcher’s past, present and future.

Where were you working before you started Mobile Healthcare?

I came out of working in IT in the financial industry. I had a pre-IPO company and was fortunate enough to consult senior executives, the presidents, and directors of Merrill Lynch. I worked on their online trading strategies, so I understand systems, problems, big numbers. I like to tear things apart and deconstruct. I don’t like to say “There’s a problem. It’s getting worse. I like solutions.”

Where did the idea for Lifewatcher come from?

A Japanese friend, who was an oil executive, and I used to go out drinking for many years. He called me from the hospital because he’d had a heart attack and he was having a quadruple bypass the next day. The guy was in tears and frustrated and I said “Oh, it’s from all this drinking and smoking.” He said “No, it’s from diabetes.” I didn’t even know he was diabetic. He said the doctors had misdiagnosed him for 10 years, so he had cardiovascular complications as a result. If he had known earlier, he could have probably prevented it. Well maybe not, because he was a big drinker and a smoker, but he would have had the option to prevent it.

So what is Lifewatcher?

We’ve created this with a convergence of cell phone and Internet technologies using the camera phone to take pictures of your foods. So you take a picture of your food and email it as an attachment to photo@lifewatcher.com, your account. You just send it and if you title in the subject line what you had, it automatically gets sent. The system extracts the kilocalories, carbs, salt values, and it collates it against your weight, exercise and medicines taken.

What does Lifewatcher do with the information?

After you take the picture, it’s time stamped, and the food automatically displays with the kilocalories, carbs and salts. I can see all of my vital data, how I’m feeling physically and my BMI is automatically controlled. So I use a scale and input in my cell phone how much I weigh each day and it automatically calculates. The system automatically collates and sends me email messages if I am over my level. For example, the other day I went over my blood pressure value, so the system sent me a soft mail saying that I was over. There’s a color code, like a traffic light, so if today, I go over my carbs, salts or blood pressure levels, the system will notice and send me a stronger and more sarcastic email to motivate or insult me.

How does electronically monitoring and documenting daily food intake help doctors?

The doctors don’t know that I had a chocolate sundae today, but if I took a blood glucose test, if I prick my finger after eating this and they see a spike, they’d say: “Hey Jamie had a 376 value” and alarms go off. Why is it so high? They don’t know. And you go, “Dr, would you like to know what I ate or what I didn’t do that contributed to this?” That’s the important part — not just the number on a graph saying “Oh you went up, down, up, down."

What kind of foods are on the Lifewatcher website?

We decided to include in our database real foods, not foods the government tells you, not that a nutritionist would tell you. Foods that you eat and buy at convenience stores, restaurants, fast food restaurants, family restaurants, prepared foods, frozen foods, snacks, drinks, deserts, everything for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, French, Italian. We didn’t want a database of 600,000 items, so we narrowed it down to the top 7,000. To make it faster and more relevant, I’ve added artificial intelligence components, so now the system learns how you’re thinking and searching.

How many users do you currently have?

More than 1,500.

Have you attracted much media attention?

We were named a Red Herring Global 100 Award Winner and were in the Asian Wall Street Journal Innovation awards and we got a nice article in the Wall Street Journal for the first time. I was interviewed by Businessweek. Time magazine is cued up but they’ve turned the story into a full article on us.

Which companies have you partnered with?

We signed with Microsoft last week for their Personal Healthcare record platform. In February, I met U.S. Army representatives at a Clinical Diabetes Association meeting conference in San Diego. Their partner is Harvard Jocelin Diabetes Center with Harvard Medical School for the whole military. So now we’re gearing up to customize and localize Lifewatcher in English. And the drill sergeants are writing our customized motivation emails. I’m happy and really grateful to be working with them.

As a business, how do you generate revenue?

Via B2B, B2G, and B2b-C, and also via licensing of Lifewatcher.

What has been the overall reaction of doctors and health professionals to Lifewatcher?

Doctors and health professionals think we are the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, they are not the gatekeepers, just the facilitators. That is why we have been adopted by the U.S. military, and by private enterprises who seek to revolutionize healthcare, such as Microsoft. The American Independent Physicians Association has also picked us up. Thus, overall from the medical and health professional (nutritionists, certified diabetes educators etc) community, the global response has been extremely positive and receptive.

What makes Lifewatcher important to disease management?

Until now, the health care industry worldwide for diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and elevated glucose has had no solution. People are dying in bigger numbers; they’re getting worse and worse. It reminds me of the old “Star Trek” expression “What’s the definition of insanity? It’s doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.” So that’s where we came in and said: “There has to be a better way.” We kind of clicked into this new industry. It’s a new emergent industry on self disease management, self prevention, and self awareness with you in control.

For further information on Lifewatcher, visit www.lifewatcher.com