DiaM

Diabetes is growing annually at an alarming rate, and it is currently the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.1 In addition, its prevalence is rising dramatically among the underserved and underinsured populations. 

Diabetes is a manually intensive disease that requires continuous attention twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Lamentably, less than 7% of people with diabetes know how to manage and control their disease effectively. With only 6,500 endocrinologists in the US and 37 million people with diabetes, we do not have enough doctors to meet the medical demand for the growing diabetes population, leading to high comorbidity rates. Similarly, people with diabetes have over 16 million visits to the ER annually.

The number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes is projected to increase by 51% in the next 24 years. Unfortunately, many people living with diabetes who reside in rural or marginalized communities do not have access to specialty providers like endocrinologists. Those at the highest risk of diabetes complications are from underrepresented populations because of the many barriers to self-care, including access to medical providers, socioeconomic status, health literacy, educational attainment, and limited diabetes education centers. 

 Between that and the shortage of credible real-time information on diabetes management, people with diabetes are left to manage a complex disease almost entirely on their own.  

DiaM is a fully unified diabetes care and management platform supporting and empowering the diabetes community. 

We offer a connected approach to care that connects people with diabetes (PWD), parents, caregivers, and other stakeholders within a single ecosystem that provides: 

• DiaM Community - a safe clinically-moderated community space. 

• DiaM Marketplace - a specialized marketplace selling products, supplies, and services.

• DiaM Cares - a behavior-AI-driven personalized Diabetes journey.

• DiaM MDConnect - offering real-time connection to devices and medical providers. 

DiaM was built to empower, support, and provide access 24/7. Our goal is to simplify the lives of PWD by incorporating all aspects of care into one seamless platform. 

We use neuropsychology, behavior science, contextual AI, next-generation engagement, and deep brain science to profoundly improve results and outcomes associated with diabetes. Our system enhances communication, treatment, and self-management of diabetes by bringing the currently fragmented pieces of healthcare together within the DiaM ecosystem. Moreover, we utilize behavior science and AI to empower, support, and prove that effective diabetes self-care can enhance the quality of life by tapping into a person's habits, instincts, cultural behaviors, and much more. 

We have created a stand-alone community for our members to enable participation and sharing of experiences that can empower others to make better-informed decisions and enhance their self-esteem. The DiaM Community is the first social media platform created specifically for people with all types of diabetes. DiaM’s community will be more than just a Facebook-style grouping. The DiaM Community will provide a safe space for all people with type one and type two diabetes, pre-diabetes, gestational diabetes, and caregivers to come together as one for support and education. The Community will aggregate data and provide personalized insights to providers and medical professionals. People with diabetes will initially have access to an app and also have access to a web interface. Diabetes professionals will be moderators throughout the community. They will help curate content, bring discussions that are off track back around to diabetes focus, and provide information, in general, that is validated. 

DiaM’s education component within the community will be a vast endeavor. DiaM will be contracting certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) around the country to narrate short video lessons on diabetes that will be culturally and socially relevant to people with diabetes. In addition, there will be content available to people in several different formats to enhance learning based on the person’s preferred learning style. Once the AI component is implemented, the algorithm will be able to learn the learning style and preferences of the user and will be able to initiate messages and alert the user to specific educational topics that might be needed or of interest. In addition to the repository of information, DiaM Life plans to gamify the educational experience with a Customer Journey that is tailored to each type of diabetes as well as to their learning style and health literacy level. 

In addition to providing education, challenges and events will be a focus on the community. For example, challenges can be sponsored by companies looking to promote their brands to the DiaM Community, which will generate revenue for DiaM Life and allow the app to be completely free for people with diabetes. The challenges will be geared towards lifestyle or behavioral changes for people with diabetes. They can include anything from fitness to blood glucose monitoring or increasing the percentage of time in range with CGM use. 

DiaM’s second phase will be launching with the DiaM Marketplace. Within the marketplace, people with diabetes will be able to purchase their supplies, products, and services. Revenue will be made via a commission fee per product sold and advertising online and offline. This will again lead to revenue for DiaM Life and provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for people with diabetes to obtain their supplies with little to no hassle. 

In 2023, DiaM will be launching its DiaM Cares behavior-AI personalized and connected component. DiaM’s behavior-AI algorithm will create a personalized journey for each member, considering their interest, habits, lifestyle, and social-cultural behaviors. Furthermore, we consider the social determinants that affect individual experiences and behaviors to create a more equitable algorithm that is inclusive in improving results and outcomes for all people with diabetes. We believe this algorithm will stimulate and impact their individual worldview, thus empowering people with diabetes to enhance their self-care and disease management. 

In this phase, we will be working with diabetes devices to allow connection from the myriad available platforms, all into the DiaM platform in real-time. Although several companies in the space are working on device integration, that is not the sole component of DiaM’s connect feature. DiaM also plans to bridge the fragmented pieces of data associated with patient management for those that cannot afford diabetes devices and/or remote monitoring tools. This connectivity leads us to the next component of DiaM Life: MDConnect.

MDConnect seeks to help doctors improve communication with their patients by connecting them to members in real-time, allowing information to flow from the patient to the doctor, notifying the doctor and his team of emergencies, patterns, and/or trends, that will improve and provide a proactive response for both people with diabetes and their doctors.

In addition to the physicians benefitting from the Care component of the DiaM platform, members will be able to benefit from customized AI alerts that can flag concerning trends that encourage the member to reach out to the provider. The member can also use the alert feature for smaller tasks such as remembering a blood glucose check or alerting the member they are low on supplies and need to reorder soon. All these areas together are small things that increase compliance and adherence to treatment resulting in better outcomes.

In brief, we offer DiaM for free to all people with diabetes, parents, and caregivers, thus enabling even those without insurance or access to care the ability to take control of their health through empowerment, support, and knowledge. Now is the time to flatten the diabetes curve associated with comorbidities and help people with diabetes improve their self-care, health, and life expectancy, especially for older at-risk populations.

The target market is people with all types of diabetes, caregivers, diabetes educators, and medical providers. 

In addition to our social media community approach and AI, we have developed a program specifically targeting the most vulnerable populations with the highest risk and prevalence of Diabetes, many from rural, black, Hispanic, Asian, Black Indigenous people of color (BIPOC), and underrepresented communities. Of the total 37 million people with diabetes in the US, 14% are American Indians/Alaska Natives, 12.5% are Hispanics, 11.7% are African Americans, and 9.2% are Asians. Our goal is to work alongside community organizations that work directly with at-risk populations that are underrepresented and that have many who have diabetes. Our programs are designed as wellness initiatives to empower local diabetes educators, community medical providers, and community health programs with tools, resources, services, and access to care via our DiaM app and website portal. DiaM personalizes each member's experience and journey to improve their self-management care in their native language and with the continuous support of educators and doctors. We want to ensure wellness and improved health outcomes for the patients are achieved, and that's why we are partnering with different community organizations and providers. Health outcomes include nutrition, diabetes education, fitness, blood glucose management, medication adherence, etc. All will be tracked, managed, and supported through our DiaM technology in real-time.

We are an interdisciplinary team of professionals united around the cause of empowering, supporting, and providing meaningful diabetes education, tools, and resources to the most vulnerable populations with the highest risk of diabetes complications from underrepresented communities.

Each member of our team brings years of experience in their profession, insight, best practices, and know-how for achieving company growth through innovation and impact.  

CEO & Founder, Lorenna Feliz Santos

is a Latina and single mom of 3 amazing boys. In 2019, after discovering her youngest son's diagnosis with type one diabetes, she found a massive opportunity to build a technology that truly empowered and supported people with diabetes, parents, and caregivers. She is also a 3x founder with 20+ years of international experience as a C-level executive in sales, marketing, business development, and management. In addition, she worked for 6-years for the Pharmaceutical company Sanofi and worked with sustainable development communities in the areas of health and entrepreneurship. 

CFO and Co-Founder, Dave Bookman 

Has 35+ Years of experience in corporate accounting, finance, taxation, due diligence, and risk management. He has been CFO for multiple companies and technology startups. 

CTO and Co-Founder, Angel Ramirez 

Has 15+ years of software development and engineering experience. He’s been a board member for multiple US and Intl companies, specializing in tech infrastructure, architecture and security. He is Kubernetes Certified Administrator (CKA.)

CPO and Co-Founder, Hitomi Mizugaki 

Has 7+ Years of product lead and software engineering experience.  She specializes in Cloud Native and DevSecOps.

Vice President of Research and Education, Emily Eyth MSN, RN, CDCES 

Has 8+ years of experience in diabetes healthcare. She is a Registered Nurse and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. Emily has significant experience in diabetes research as well as education of children and adults, medical professionals, and people with diabetes.  

Data Analyst and Grants Manager, Andrea Mariani 

Has extensive experience in data analysis and management. She also provides overall grant support and management for proposed projects and is responsible for maintaining reports, overseeing the implementation of the project, providing analysis, and interpreting results. 

Community Analyst and Intern Manager, Cheyenne Rattray

Has a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Behavioral Science with a minor in Psychology. She has extensive experience in undergraduate neuropsychology research, as well as education of adolescents in both Science and English.

As a Latina female CEO, many barriers exist to building a supportive and diverse network of professionals that may help support, guide, and mentor our vision for successful growth. Over the last two years, we have built an amazing network of advisors, however, we wish to propel our business to its next phase and achieve the success that has been evident in those that participate in MIT's Solve.

The most innovative and influential components of DiaM are the synergy between community, behavior science, neuropsychology, self-care management, and AI. 

Our most competitive advantage is our growing network of members who need DiaM. 

Diabetes is a fragmented space with insufficient endocrinologists to meet the growing demand. People with diabetes are unable to easily access support, products, supplies, education, services, and up-and-coming new technologies. We will become the go-to destination for everything diabetes. 

DiaM is a private, clinically moderated safe space for support, self-care tools, and engagement that connects their world in a single ecosystem focused on empowering their self-care and health journey. Diabetes device companies, pharma, and many others will have the ability to access DiaM and connect with their patients beyond their traditional services. Our extended partner associated services offer increased revenue, improved patient outcomes, and access to comprehensive non-identifiable rich data, which tracks behavior, connected patient outcomes, social-cultural markers, and medical provider connected data.

DiaM utilizes science and technology to prove that effective Diabetes care, management, and control are achievable by tapping into a person's habits, instincts, cultural behaviors, and much more. We own a unique proprietary behavior AI algorithm that can clinically improve Diabetes and achieve impact beyond the standard "one-size-fits-all" diabetes digital health model.

Behavior Science and AI is an untapped resources in Diabetes Care and Management. DiaM will empower people with diabetes to improve self-care through personalized experiences and our AI behavior assistant. Doctors will receive real-time behavior data, alerts, suggestions, and trends that will not add to their workload. But allow for proactive critical care in emergencies, critical BG and A1C patterns, predictive analytics, and more.

Goals for the next year: 

• Connect and engage with 100,000 members

• Improve the quality of life 

• Launch in English & Spanish

Goals for the next five years: 

• Grow our community to 500,000 members

• Expand to LATAM, Canada, and the Caribbean

• Improve Self-Care management for PWDs

• Decrease A1C

The impact of the use of our platform with 360-degree care and behavioral AI can be measured in a multitude of ways. 

• Increased quality of life measures

• Decrease in A1c

• Increase of CGM time in range

• Reduced costs on the healthcare system. For example, each percentage of A1c reduction equates to an average healthcare savings of $4,100 per patient.

• Increase in rural population access to specialist providers

• Increase in access to medication and supplies

• Decrease in the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes/prediabetes

DiaM was built to empower, support, and provide access to critical self-care education, tools, and resources for people with diabetes. Our solution will impact the underserved diabetes communities as illustrated below through logical links between inputs, activities, and outcomes.

DiaM’s unified ecosystem will improve care by connecting members, identifying medication adherence, patient behavior for improved self-care, and real-time medical remote-patient monitoring for a reduction in ER visits. 

We own a unique proprietary behavior AI algorithm that can clinically improve diabetes and achieve impact beyond the standard "one-size-fits-all" diabetes digital health model. DiaM’s behavior-AI algorithm creates a personalized journey for each member, considering their interest, habits, lifestyle, and social-cultural behaviors to help people with diabetes make behavioral changes to more effectively manage their disease.

Successful management of diabetes, regardless of type, is dependent on the abilities of the PWD to manage an increasingly complex disease, almost entirely on their own. It is well accepted that ongoing diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) is a critical component of quality care. Also, it is well-documented that peer support groups are essential for people with chronic conditions.[1]

In addition, the Pew Research Center published findings that nearly 60% of individuals in the US have smartphones and that 90% go online daily. Additionally, health-related social networking is growing: approximately one-quarter of Internet users access information about others’ experiences with health issues online, and 16% of Internet users seek others with similar health concerns. [17]

DiaM Life’s own research found that an online community can provide many avenues for peer support through giving and receiving technical, emotional, and medical support and serve as an empowerment tool.  There are many communities targeted toward PWD throughout the various social media platforms. These communities have different goals, rules, moderation, and populations of people with diabetes. However, the DiaM Community will be the first clinically moderated social media platform created specifically for caregivers and people with all types of diabetes. We believe that bringing this same type of support to the online environment and allowing access for all people with diabetes expands the reach of support to marginalized and underrepresented people, allowing them to reap the benefits of knowledge from others with the same struggles but different viewpoints. 

Product Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wfyxfZiAo0Hm8UA_l8xHubhZRUpg1xgj/view?usp=sharing

DiaM Life is committed to a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. Each individual has the right to work in a professional atmosphere that promotes equal employment opportunities and prohibits unlawful discriminatory practices, including harassment. Therefore, DiaM Life expects that all relationships among persons in the office will be business-like and free of explicit bias, prejudice, and harassment.

We have developed this policy to ensure that all its employees can work in an environment free from unlawful harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. 

DiaM is a B2B business that has built exceptional traction in connecting with key groups, influencers, ambassadors and building partnerships. We have four key components that synergistically complement our unified platform, several different client types. Our three key client types are: 

1. All members (People with Diabetes, parents, and caregivers) access DiaM for Free. 

1. Private Brands - We will have the opportunity to advertise via a SaaS subscription within two select areas in our community (challenges and events only). In addition, they can select media packages (email marketing, webinar sponsorship, direct mail, and more), seasonal campaigns, customized research (polls, surveys, activities, or other focused on data-rich results), and participate as sponsors during Diabetes Awareness Month. 

1. Sellers - DiaM charges an annual seller fee to access our marketplace, makes a commission per product sold, offers featured opportunities from product placement, etc. In addition, we offer media packages that target our community.

1. Medical Providers - Can select via our SaaS subscription to connect with their patients in real-time. Our subscription is based on tiered levels based on the number of patients they wish to connect with and receive real-time information from. We will also offer white label opportunities and add-on data packages. 

We have expansion plans into Latin America and the Caribbean for 2023. We are a B2B company. We offer all people with diabetes free access to care and a robust centralized marketplace for all their medical needs. We will target medical groups, hospitals, and others with robust incentives, reimbursement savings, and improved health. US, LATAM, and More.

We plan to get funding through grants, raising investment capital, and selling our product. 

• Grants - We have applied for grants over $500K, including the NSF & NIH SBIR Grants.

• Raising Investment Capital - Presently, we are raising $2.4 Million

• Sales: We have started presales and have 2 confirmed clients and 2 under negotiation.

We are achieving financial success for 2022 ranges in our diverse set of sales products and services offered within our community and marketplace. 

We have an estimated $789K which we have forecasted for 2022 (21 clients). As mentioned earlier, we are presently conducting pre-sales for our summer community launch