Kakao Healthcare to offer a blood sugar monitoring app

Industry

Published: 02 Mar. 2023, 18:46

Kakao Healthcare to offer a blood sugar monitoring app

Kakao Healthcare CEO Hwang Hee speaks about his business plan during a press conference Thursday in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [KAKAO HEALTHCARE]

Kakao Healthcare hopes to come up with an app that helps prevent people from getting diabetes, the disease that kills over 1.5 million every year globally.

Kakao Healthcare said Thursday it plans to introduce an app that manages people's blood sugar levels by the third quarter. It will be the first service offered by Kakao Healthcare, which was established in March last year as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kakao.

"The app monitors users' real-time blood sugar levels 24 hours a day," Kakao Healthcare CEO Hwang Hee said during a press conference Thursday in Pangyo, Gyeonggi.

"It will then provide advice to the users such as suggesting a nutritionally balanced menu."

When filing a photo of a user's diet, it will automatically calculate necessary information, such as nutritional contents and calories.

The app, which the company calls the Gamma Project for now, will also be able to gather data from other digital healthcare devices, such as scales and wearable devices.

"Around 40 percent of adults in Korea have diabetic problems, and though they know that they must change their eating habits, they don't know what to do and how," Hwang added.

Kakao Healthcare will expand its services to other diseases, such as high blood pressure and obesity.

Kakao Healthcare is also in the process of developing a platform that standardizes data of clinical trial results and medical records.

"We would like to become a bridge that connects medical institutions, research institutions and companies," Hwang said.

The service will be available in the second quarter.

When asked about the possibility of entering the remote diagnosis business, Hwang said he has no plan. The business is largely controlled by start-ups.

The global digital healthcare market is estimated to reach 700 trillion won ($534 billion) in 2027.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]