WIMTACH partners with Cassidy e-Care Solutions to develop a mobile application with aims of supporting individuals with diabetes

Cassidy e-Care Solutions is on a mission to empower diabetes patients. With a partnership with WIMTACH, the Winnipeg-based startup has successfully established the Minimum Viable Product for a mobile application that is set to enable people with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes to collect, track and share diabetes information. It makes it easy for users to track their diabetes journey and avoid complications.

When founder Mpho Begin initially learned about WIMTACH, she felt assured that the team was enthusiastic about her vision, and in the end, her instincts did not fail her. The first of a multi-phased collaboration, the partnership has already yielded the foundation for Begin to show future investors and users the potential for the new application and she is quite pleased with the innovations of the WIMTACH team. “It’s been great,” she said. “As soon as we met with WIMTACH in the beginning, they were interested in collaborating.”

The inspiration behind the project stemmed from Begin’s own experience in the healthcare system after facing a difficult health challenge which resulted in lingering high-blood pressure concerns. After her initial contact with healthcare providers, she found the disconnect in communication of her aftercare requirements to be another challenge of its own. Left to independently manage her aftercare needs, she noted that she was often left in the dark about the best practices to ensure a successful recovery. The circumstances surrounding that period helped her to recognize that like many other patients, she could only rely on herself to ensure that she was able to recuperate properly. “It looks like the hospital kind of said, ‘OK you’re done with it, now you’re outside the hospital, you’re on your own,” she said. “So, I found myself struggling to even reach out to the specialist.”

While speaking to other healthcare professionals, she learned about the connection between Diabetes and high-blood pressure and its wide spanning reach. According to Diabetes Canada, the disease affects one in three Canadians today and many of those affected are Black Canadians. It’s a fact that Begin is well aware of, and a driver behind her passion to launch her application. The partnership with WIMTACH enabled Begin to advance towards her larger mission in empowering those who are affected by diabetes with the tools to take control of their entire healthcare journey and arm them with the ability to manage and monitor things like their diet, their treatment plan and even, their medication intake. Ultimately, Begin also designed the application in a way to support healthcare providers with providing holistic care and the resources to go beyond their initial diagnoses to consider a patient’s background when providing care. “I am happy with the MVP,” she said. “At this point, I’m kind of at the point where I am looking for people who want to test the app and provide feedback.” She hopes to use this feedback to develop the next phase of the project.

Originally from Botswana, Begin has set out to make the application useful in a global context to particularly assist Black people from any country with the ability to account for how their traditional diets as well as their incorporation of western diets may be impacting their health. “Most of the apps out there are not geared towards the Black population especially if you have diabetes,” she said. “I’m hoping with my app I can fill that gap to be able to target the Black population.”

The goal for the next phase of the project is to have a completed application that is ready for this market. Begin is looking forward to this development and in five years, she hopes that all of this effort will ensure that the application has become a well-known resource for the diabetes community. “Diabetes doesn’t just affect people in Canada, it’s a global [disease],” she said.

Now, with her own experience with WIMTACH, she wants other startups to know about the resources available to them including the grant funding assistance available to small business owners. The commitment she saw from the WIMTACH team, has also assured her that other business owners would find a collaboration useful. “What I found is that usually, when somebody [provides] anything for free, usually there’s a lack of commitment … with WIMTACH we are both committed to delivering on the expectations we set in the beginning” she said.

For further information, please send press inquiries to ptyagi@centennialcollege.ca