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Record: 1

Title: Medtronic Diabetes Takes Holistic Tack.

Authors: AMY REEVES

Source: Investors Business Daily. 6/17/2015, pA04. 1p.

Document Type: Product Review

Subject Terms: MEDICAL equipment -- Software -- Evaluation

Company/Entity: MEDTRONIC PLC DUNS Number: 006261481 Ticker: MDT

Abstract: The article evaluates the MiniMed Connect, a software system letting
pump users to track information about their health through the
Internet from medical device manufacturing firm Medtronic Inc.

Full Text Word Count: 1099

ISSN: 1061-2890

Accession Number: 103275211

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Medtronic Diabetes Takes Holistic Tack

INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY

Q&A
Technology
More Than Devices

MiniMed Connect lets diabetes pump users track data via the cloud
Ever since it acquired MiniMed in 2001, Medtronic, known for heart products, has become a big player in
diabetes, with roughly 60% global market share in insulin pumps.
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But with a series of announcements in early June, it's trying to become more than a gadget maker.
On June 5, the FDA approved MiniMed Connect, a system letting pump users track information about their
health through the Internet, with a specially developed smartphone app for Apple's
([STOCK[NASDAQ:AAPL]]) iOS. At the same time, Medtronic ([STOCK[NYSE:MDT]]) unveiled a new
partnership with Samsung to develop the concept for Google's ([STOCK[NASDAQ:GOOGL]]) Android
system. The device maker also partnered with cloud-computing firm Glooko to expand the information
available through the system.
While it might seem like everything has a smartphone app these days, for Medtronic this is part of a larger
shift in its diabetes strategy toward deploying data on top of its traditional devices. Hooman Hakami,
president of Medtronic Diabetes, recently explained the latest moves to IBD.
IBD: How much of a shift in strategy is this new initiative?
Hakami: Over the last 12 months, we've undergone what I would call a pretty profound shift in the overall
strategy for Medtronic Diabetes.
If you look at us historically, we have built this wonderful legacy and this wonderful brand serving Type 1
patients through insulin delivery devices and continuous glucose monitors, or sensors. Over the last 15 or
20 years, MiniMed has built this business by essentially becoming a Type 1 developed-market-focused
pump-and-sensor company.
That legacy has served the company well. But as we take a look at the future, what we need to do in order
to grow, and in order to serve the patients around the world, (is) be much more than (that). We need to
transform into a holistic diabetes-management company. And about a year or so ago, the senior leadership
team of the diabetes group got together and charted a course for this vision of becoming this holistic
diabetes-management company.
It's still very early days, but it's something we firmly believe in and are completely committed to.
IBD: So can you explain how data are so important to diabetes?
Hakami: Let's take a step back and talk about how we see the overall landscape, and therefore why data is
important.
If you look at diabetes, and the incidence and the cost of diabetes, this is a global epidemic. We have a
patient population that today stands at 387 million worldwide. In the next 20 years, another 205 million
patients will be added to that. It's just staggering. If you look at the cost associated with treating diabetes
globally, it's also staggering $611 billion. These curves are not slowing down they're continuing to
increase, and in some cases increase at an exponential rate.
Over the last 20 years, there's been wonderful innovation, but it's done nothing to contain the cost or the
incidence or as we would hope reverse the incidence curves. So what it tells you is that at a very high
level, the technology isn't enough. What do we think it takes in order for us to bend these curves in the right
direction? You've got to have technology everything I've said doesn't mean technology isn't part of the
solution; it has to be. But from that technology comes data. And data is absolutely critical. The technology
itself, and any other type of data related to the patient's life with diabetes is important.

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But that alone isn't enough. We've got to take that data and turn it into information meaningful, useful,
actionable information and feed that information into integrated patient management. By integrated
patient management, I mean a system where you have primary care, endocrinology, diabetes educators,
dietitians, psychologists working together on behalf of this patient.
Those are the pieces that we believe you need in order to make a difference. What we've been trying to do
over the last 12 months is systematically put the pieces together from each of these different elements.
IBD: Can you give a specific example of what the data will be useful for?
Hakami: We've been in the data business for a while, actually. We have a system called CareLink, (which)
is not only a data repository but also a reporting tool that stores within it information from our pumps and our
sensors. The other pieces of information it will record is finger-stick readings from the patient. So what you'll
see within CareLink, we'll have the amount of insulin, when they bolused that is, when did they inject
themselves with an additional dose of insulin what their meter readings were over time, when did they
take finger-sticks, when were their meals, when did they exercise as long as that information has been
put into our device, our CareLink system has the ability to record that information.
Today we have something like 125 million patient days of information sitting in CareLink. It's over four
terabytes of data, and we use that data for both caregivers and patients alike. The physician can download
all of that information prior to a patient's visit. We provide reports that will enable the provider to optimize the
dosing of insulin for the patient (and) provide advice with respect to the lifestyle changes that need to occur.
And with the patient we're doing the same thing: simplified reports that will allow the patient to better
understand the actions they take during the day whether it's with meals or sleep or exercise impact
their glucose levels.
What we really want to do is expand that. Because there's so much more information that we think can be
pertinent to allowing us to help a patient better manage their diabetes and help a provider administer better
care.
Take Fitbit ([STOCK[NYSE:FIT]]), as an example. We believe that if you can use that type of biometric data
around steps or heart rate (or) how deep sleep was over the course of an evening that information, along
with the other pieces of information we have, will be useful to allow us to better understand the dynamics
surrounding an individual patient and help both the patient and the provider with diabetes management.
That's just one small example.
AMY REEVES
Copyright 2015 Investor's Business Daily, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
~~~~~~~~
By AMY REEVES
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