“BettrLife is the only app I have found which gives me control of my own health while allowing my physician(s) to guide me.” Gayle M
Des Moines, Iowa (PRWEB) November 17, 2016
Gayle M. is an active professional woman who was overweight with diabetes. She initially engaged with BettrLife to manage and monitor her nutrition and activities after her mother’s early death related to diabetes.
Her family history included heart disease and diabetes. Gayle was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at age 34, which resolved itself naturally after delivering her third child. She was later diagnosed with diabetes at age 39 but made no life changes related to nutrition or activities. She continued a busy lifestyle, however, without a mindful focus on exercise or nutrition. At age 48, upon her mother’s death, she began to make changes to include nutrition and activity improvements. After running a 5k, she experienced some health-related challenges while training for a 20K event. After engaging her local physician, she was referred to a vascular surgeon and transferred her primary care to Mayo Clinic. Tests revealed she had stenosis of the right carotid artery. This development was life changing for her, now realizing she needed to make more definitive health decisions to live to see her youngest son graduate from college, or to see future grandchildren.
Gayle engaged with BettrLife to actively monitor her daily nutrition and calorie burn/activities. Her dietitian remotely monitored her daily nutrition, including carbohydrates, protein, sodium, calories, etc., while she could plan her nutrition based on her daily activities and carb intake needs. Since using BettrLife the following health aspects have changed for Gayle:
- Lost total 60 lbs. under medical supervision
- Improved blood pressure – no longer need for cardiologist care
- Arrested carotid stenosis development
- Reduced A1C (8.6 down to 7.0)
- Eliminated 2 medications
- Reduced daily carbohydrate intake from over 120g to under 50g (learned to adjust with activity level)
- No further need to test blood sugars
- Increased running distances from 1/4 mile to completing 5k’s, 20k’s and 2 half marathons)
About:
BettrLife is a technology solution which assists healthcare organizations by engaging patients in healthy lifestyle outcomes. The health coaching portal features advanced planning and analytic tools that allow for efficient population health management. BettrLife is built to meet current HIPAA security standards, and the mobile and web application for nutrition, food and activity can easily integrate with existing workflow and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.
Challenges:
Gayle tried other electronic logging tools prior to using BettrLife. Other apps were time-consuming and limited to a list of foods; not dividing nutrition values to the detailed levels which she needed to balance her activity to nutritional needs. Electronic logging tools were not user-friendly and contained multiple listings of the same foods. It was difficult to choose the food with necessary itemized nutrition information.
In addition, Gayle had a diverse group of specialists initially involved on her medical team and it was difficult to know what information was relevant to each. BettrLife displayed her findings in a clear and concise manner to each of the medical staff involved in her care.
She had clear macro/micro-nutrient goals set by her physician, so she needed a solution that could accurately display and alert her whether she was meeting those goals.
How BettrLife Helped:
Gayle could view her nutrition goals on her mobile app as well as on her computer. The application enabled her to structure her eating choices. It gave her the ability to plan menu items related to her daily activity levels verses nutrition intake. What she planned to eat automatically went to a shopping list enabling her to ensure she had all the ingredients needed to meet her planned eating. As she logged her food throughout the day, the BettrLife app let her know if she was on track to meet her goals using an emoji. A green smiley face indicated she was doing well, whereas a yellow frown indicated what nutritional areas she was off track. As she progressed through the day, she knew if she needed more carbs, or to limit carbs.
Multiple physicians and/or her dietitian remotely view what Gayle is logging in “real-time” through the Health Coach Portal. The physician and dietitian send secure messages through the platform, letting her know where adjustments can be made to her diet.
Alerts are sent to coaches to easily notify them when their patients are not compliant, helping them to manage large populations more effectively.
Results:
Knowing her physician/coach/dietitian were monitoring her log, Gayle made better choices. This increased accountability has led to her 60lb. reduction in weight. Clear indicators in BettrLife let her know how she was doing during the day, which resulted in smarter food and activity choices.
Because the BettrLife application intuitively learns patient behavior, frequently eaten foods automatically appear as suggestions in log choices. This makes logging very simple as it creates smart and recent lists of foods typically consumed by an individual.
BettrLife allowed Gayle to log her blood pressure throughout a critical period, allowing her cardiologist and endocrinologist to view daily and monthly trends, as well as highs and lows. This is no longer necessary, but still available to her.
BettrLife enabled Gayle to log her blood sugars to gauge trends related to her activity and proper nutrition choices to support her activity level while managing her blood sugar. Medical personnel can monitor these values as they trend daily, monthly or every 90 days. Now that her blood sugars are more stable, Gayle’s dietitian monitors every 30 days, while her endocrinologist checks every 6 months. She can message her medical team via BettrLife with questions or concerns 24/7.
This flow between planning and logging modules provided necessary structure for Gayle and provided keys to her success. It gave her the needed guidance through remote interaction. The multifaceted capabilities are totally integrated in BettrLife. This enables Gayle to plan a full week menu, which automatically populates food items to a shopping list, therefore simplifying her ability to prepare her daily meals and snacks while following dietary guidelines.
Supporting Visuals or Quotes:
- Because of the remote interaction features, Bettrlife is more than an app! It became alive!... an unobtrusive aspect of my support team with the ability to message key people”.
- “BettrLife has allowed me to have a digital, real time reminder of my health goals.”
- “BettrLife is a tool for positive reinforcement as it connects me to people who are partners to my life plan of better health.”
- “BettrLife is the only tool I have found which gives me control of my own health while allowing my physician(s) to guide me.”
- “Because of my active lifestyle, BettrLife is perfect! The intuitive features make it quick and easy to log.”
- “BettrLife has become a way of life...like brushing my teeth, it is part of my daily life which has opened an entirely new and enriching future for me”.
- “BettrLife helped me identify a better awareness of how great my body feels when blood sugars are stable.”
Quality of Life:
- “BettrLife has helped me decrease my clothing size by several sizes! Cuter styles and more choices (fun choices) for both professional and everyday clothing.”
- Gayle made professional changes to embrace a healthier lifestyle. (Confidence to make the leap of faith for less stress).
- “I put into practice my lifelong thought that people and experiences are most important…and not to replace experiences with food.”
- Completed a 5K race with two athlete sons. “What an incredible bonding experience...To participate with them, not be a spectator!”
- “Inspirational moment when I picked up my information packet for first half marathon…the sign read “Athletes Only” …and I thought…Oh, that’s me!” (Gayle was a former athlete, as she played volleyball in high school and college).
- “BettrLife helped me identify a poignant understanding that I once looked in the mirror and thought I saw myself, but actually viewed what I looked like at 20 years old. Now I see myself in the mirror as reality…am happy with what I see, and will use BettrLife to help me continue.