Bettir (YC W15) Wants to Chat with You About Your Blood Pressure
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
It's used mainly by medical folks but usable by savvy patients as well.
We have done a lot of internal calculations to prove that we can make the numbers work, but you are right that covering the costs is a challenge for this type of service. Without revealing too much, I'll say that part of our secret sauce is the way that we provide high-quality feedback at an affordable cost.
Even better, if you enable people all over the world tohave access to the best doctors.
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.
High bp runs in my family so I've been considering monitoring on a more consistent basis. I may have to try this out.
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.
Your blood pressure is a wave, going up and down throughout the day, week, month, etc. Just taking it once every time you're at the doctor's office is not even good enough for some diagnoses.
One example of this is "white coat" hypertension, which some studies indicate occurs in 20-45% of people diagnosed with hypertension. Their blood pressure is high in the doctor's office but low at home, which can result in overmedication.
If you do have hypertension though, then the big challenge is getting your blood pressure under control. Medication is one way, but without home monitoring, it is hard to find out exactly how well the medication is working.
When it comes to lifestyle changes (diet, sleep, caffeine, etc.), we help you track, monitor, and manage the improvements these types of changes can bring.
If you have hypertension, you are at a greatly increased risk of dying from a stroke or from heart disease, and Bettir is designed to help you manage that.
I feel like if that can happen, when it eventually comes out, every single person will own it. Hopefully it's possible.
Before then, it's important to note that current home blood pressure monitoring technology is actually pretty good. There are wrist-based monitors available at your local drug store most likely for $50 or less. They're slightly bulky but they are way better than nothing.
One in three American adults have high blood pressure and it is strongly correlated with increases in death from strokes and heart attacks. Even before the monitoring technology is perfectly elegant, it's crucial that people start monitoring their blood pressure using what is currently available.
Do you know the guys over at Echo Labs? http://www.echolabs.co/
That's why I want there to be a wearable version. Heart Rate and Temperature should already be measurable on a wearable. Getting BP measurable would give us 90% of the "vitals" information we need to know how we're doing.
BP is the big one too because you can have high blood pressure and not even know it. My wife had gestational hypertension (high BP caused by pregnancy) and her BP went sky high and the whole time she felt fine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.