As part of our series of Case Studies for The HETT Show (www.hettshow.co.Uk) – we look at the rise of the Nipro Diagnostics company in Diabetes healthcare and ask, – from a standing start (with the new 4SURE portfolio), in just a few years, has their time come to be a major UK player?
For many people like you and I, the realisation that many people with diabetes do not have their condition out of choice, is a hard one to accept. And yet its management requires a complex understanding.
Let’s try and set the scene. In the last 10 years, the cost of treating Diabetes in the UK, has almost doubled. Looking at it another way – some 13% of all the NHS spending, is diabetes related. It is the largest slice of spending in the NHS cake. And for type 2 diabetes there is no shortage of blame. Everything from the UK government’s lack of practical steps – through to you and I for eating the wrong food and an ever increasing sedentary lifestyle .
Or maybe, there is no blame? Maybe, despite the fact that 10 years is a long time, and long enough to change both personal and NHS day-to-day processes, is it only now that we need to take a deeper look?
Is it therefore time? Time to reassess, and look again at what do we really need, now, to bring the diabetes epidemic under control and into the 21st century with technological advancements?
10 years ago, and with a Nipro global headcount of some 29,000 people – the NiproDIAGNOSTICS company was not a known player in the UK. Two years ago, they set out to furtherfocus their attention to help people living with Type 1 diabetes, by launching the 4SURE range of glucose meters and partnered with the revolutionary Diabetes:M App. With the aim of being the single one stop shop for every person requiring blood glucose monitoring, Nipro set about bringing into a needy market, a combined process that was affordable for the NHS, and easy to understand for you and I.
Tom Atkinson, Country Manager of Nipro Diagnostics UK, looks corporate cool – with a fashionable soft northern accent, dressed in an open white shirt, he leans into his screen and talks fluidly about his Insulin Pharma background, and the wish to be part of a complete solution.
“What we understood from day one, was that we have to work the same way as our patients. They don’t want a meter that the NHS cannot afford; they want one with Bluetooth connectivity.And they want an App, which has got to be their Dashboard – everybody wants an App. Our big plus is that access to our new innovative technology, is obviously free, along with the Starter Pack from their diabetes clinic – which includes their initial consumables.”
We talk about the pandemic. It is an irony that, at a time when the NHS and health service provision has been desperate for so many – the essential acceptance overnight of remote diagnostics and monitoring by NHS nurses, has been a game changer for the better, for Nipro.
“Clearly, we had not forecast a pandemic”, continues Tom, “but it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before common acceptance and a desire for remote diabetes monitoring. What has helped, is that our meters have an accuracy rate of 99.3%, and we are the fastest growing provider of diabetes solutions”.
The corporate ethos of a sales pitch is creeping into the discussion, and I don’t have a problem with that. What is equally evident is the pride of helping the ordinary person with diabetes, just being available, at the end of a phone line if a patient needs help or advice. But that does not address the basic issue of human behavior. A diabetes meter can only be reactive to a patient’s condition.
Not necessarily. By giving the patient an affordable, information-driven, platform to manage their condition, patients themselves can change their lifestyles armed with the facts and see the benefits of their condition improving by relating to their life choices.
Tom interrupts; “yes, this is true – we are “part” of the solution – but for the patient, we are the major part – as it’s our technology they are using every day and we are the link between them and their own clinic or doctor, as we are providing the vital remote monitoring bridge to keep a patient in touch with their HCP so they can monitor their glucose levels remotely in real time and change their medication and other variables, there and then, if needs be”.
The focus of the discussion goes back to that of patient-provider relationship. “We don’t want diabetes to be the affliction for everyone – but we do want to provide the all-embracing solution for those that need it”. Tom looks at his watch. We have been engaged in academic discussion for nearly an hour, and it is Friday afternoon, end of July. He is taking his family on holiday.
I closed my screen and take a moment of reflection. Innovation is not necessarily about technology. The patient also has a role to play. The Innovation at Nipro is the approach, taking the fear-factor, the newness, and combining it to tech that simply delivers, and communicating that to the person in the street.
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