
Bettir (YC W15) Wants to Chat with You About Your Blood Pressure - katm
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/08/bettir-wants-to-chat-with-you-about-your-blood-pressure/
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mishmax
Great job. This is great to see as I'm working on something related. I
actually built a tool that's used in clinics where your blood pressure
readings, risk factors, etc.. are entered and the the diagnosis and treatment
plan is generated according to guidelines. It follows the Canadian guidelines
and has been vetted by hypertension specialists. Check it out at
[http://app.snapdx.co](http://app.snapdx.co)

It's used mainly by medical folks but usable by savvy patients as well.

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cmikec
Thank you, and thanks for sharing. Shoot me an email at mike@bettir.com, we
can explore whether or not there is anything useful we could work on together.

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mishmax
Sure, done! :)

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dr_
I don't know what the business plan here will ultimately be, but there are
apps which charge say $40 for a dermatologist to read a photo of your skin
lesion. As a physician, at first I thought, what dermatologist would accept
$40 (or less if the app gets a cut) to do this. But it's making more sense
with time. I can see physicians doing work like this from the comfort of their
home environments, on somewhat of their own schedule, than dealing with the
hassles of running an office or coding with the nightmarish icd10 schedule.
They may lose on some income, but will make up for some of it with volume and
for many it will be worth it for the convenience and, hopefully, reduced
stress levels. I hope companies like bettir and some of the others, succeed.

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cmikec
Thanks for your kind comments. :) You're totally right. We believe this is the
correct paradigm for the future of medicine. Going to the doctor's office is
no fun, and nobody likes to do it. As a result, many preventable causes of
death and illness remain untreated. Bettir's goal is to make it possible to
manage certain conditions, like high blood pressure, from the comfort of one's
home.

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tomjen3
I don't much care to admit it, but I have an irrational fear of doctors. This
would be a great help for me.

Even better, if you enable people all over the world tohave access to the best
doctors.

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cmikec
You would be surprised how many people have an irrational fear of doctors. And
that said, even people who aren't fearful generally don't like going. For
most, it's just not a pleasant experience.

We'd love to get you signed up, go ahead and email me at mike@bettir.com I can
answer any questions that you have.

And you also nailed something on the head that hasn't been addressed much yet
in these comments - one of the biggest benefits of what we're doing is that
many people around the world don't have access to the best doctors. By giving
people care through our service, we're enabling high-quality care in a
widespread fashion.

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6thSigma
I've been told I have white coat hypertension. My bp readings are 130-140/85
in doctor offices and usually 110-120/75 outside.

High bp runs in my family so I've been considering monitoring on a more
consistent basis. I may have to try this out.

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cmikec
Mike here, one of the founders of Bettir. We'd love to have you try it out.
White coat hypertension is one of the biggest problems with hypertension
diagnosis. For those that don't know, some studies show 20-45% of people
diagnosed with hypertension actually only have white coat hypertension, which
means they don't actually have hypertension but that their blood pressure is
elevated while in the doctor's office.

Home monitoring is one of the best ways to handle this, and it's a really good
use case for Bettir.

Feel free to reach out to me at mike@bettir.com, we'll make sure that you get
set up to use Bettir ASAP.

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cmikec
Hi, I'm Mike, one of the founders of Bettir. I'm available to answer questions
if you have any.

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Impossible
I'd love to try Bettir, but it's iOS only. I understand that the reasoning for
this is probably a combination of standard reasons why startups ship only (or
at least initially) on iOS and the usage of HealthKit. Are there plans to ship
on Android or any other platform anytime in the near future?

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cmikec
We currently have a (beta) mobile webapp that works on Android, and we will
definitely have an Android app in the future. We also give our service to some
people over email and SMS. Visit [http://recordbp.com/](http://recordbp.com/)
from Chrome on your Android to get it going. It supports being added to your
home screen.

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discardorama
FTA: "at certain times by monitoring it 24/7 with an app"

How can the app do this without a BP device constantly attached to one's arm,
inflating/deflating all the time? Or is it just a spreadsheet for entering the
values? The article was skimpy on the details.

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cmikec
Good question. There are ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices, but
much more common are devices that take discrete readings. At Bettir, we factor
in all data points.

Ambulatory is not necessary in many cases though, where a simple daily reading
still provides vastly more information than the once or twice a year that most
people go to their doctor.

Most of our users record 1-3 readings per day, which provides a wealth of
useful data.

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dimitar
I actually expected some holter monitor integration for this app when reading
the headline, but it seems it is a logging tool (still useful).

I'm going to try the Android web app when I go home. I think I actually need
this since I do have hypertension.

I'm in my early 20s and I have normal weight and no medical conditions beside
this. I consider my self healthy, but I do take some medication to correct it
before it causes me any significant damage.

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cmikec
Bettir is one part logging tool, and one part a team of algorithms, experts,
and doctors that will give you feedback on managing your blood pressure on a
regular basis.

We'd be thrilled to have you use our Android web app. Feel free to reach out
to me at mike@bettir.com if you have any questions or comments.

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mreezie
My mom uses this to manage her blood pressure. She liked being able to bring
in a report to her doctor summarizing all her readings.

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cmikec
Wonderful. If you have any questions or comments feel free to reach out to me
at mike@bettir.com.

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ExpiredLink
It's a mobile Excel sheet!

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cmikec
Mike, one of the founders of Bettir here.

While we do track and chart blood pressure data, Bettir is a service that
offers daily feedback from experts and doctors on your blood pressure.

Recording your blood pressure is an important part of managing high blood
pressure and other blood pressure conditions, but it's only a piece of the
puzzle. If you use Bettir, you'll input your blood pressure and other related
metrics into our app, and we'll connect you with our in-house specialists who
will offer you feedback and suggestions on how to manage your blood pressure.

