Team GSMA reflect on memorable experiences brought about by Mobile Health as they complete 2015 Grand Tour

Team GSMA, along with the other riders, have now crossed the finish line in Geneva, and have completed the 2015 mHealth Grand Tour. During the final day of the Tour,  cyclists rode through stunning Alpine scenery and glorious sunshine before encountering heavy rain and wet slippery roads, making the final steps of the Tour a true test of endurance.
Undoubtedly, all riders from 22 nations, can be proud of their personal achievement and their contribution towards raising awareness for diabetes and the advancement of mobile health technology that will improve the lives of millions.
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As the riders knew, the Tour acts as a testing ground for these health solutions, helping to determine their usefulness in the field for both those with and without diabetes. By the end of the Tour, riders across the board were utterly convinced of the effectiveness and the market readiness of the mobile health solution they had been using throughout the Tour.
Team Captain Pete Montgomery (Director Marketing Partnerships, GSMA), reported that in this respect the Grand Tour was a huge success, demonstrating what can be achieved inside a cooperative ecosystem,  ‘The technology trial and health study was hugely successful with riders expressing their support throughout and learning new things every-day. Whether it was using additional sensor data such as their heart rate to give an indication of their blood sugar levels or monitoring their sleep patterns for day-by-day analysis of their performance, everybody gained something new through the study that will help them perform better, and manage their condition better, in future endurance events. None of this would have been possible without the huge support from Orange, Dexcom, Intel, Samsung, TapCheck and many others who worked seamlessly to create and support a robust platform for the technical trial and health study’.
Mobile health solutions such as these make it possible for those with diabetes to live a healthier, more active life. For Team GSMA’s Gavin Griffiths, the Tour served as a fantastic reminder of this fact, ‘My most memorable, most inspiring moment from the entire Tour is when one of my fellow riders and diabetics broke down in tears at the summit of the final climb of the tour. It was brought on by the thought of how this was now possible – when he was diagnosed over 40 years ago he thought he could never envisage accomplishing this epic ride’.
The solution, was not only effective in the field at tracking individual performance, but also incredibly easy to use. Simon Picking recalled to us how easy the solution was to use and praised it’s interoperability, ‘With the app as the central point of the solution, connecting to HRM, CGM, insulin pump and potentially other sensors is incredibly useful and convenient – there are so many brands/solutions that are not interoperable, but if they all connected with an app on my mobile phone it would really help pull all of the components together giving me consolidated reporting and access to all of my healthcare devices, real-time.’
Now that the effectiveness of this mobile health solution has again been convincingly demonstrated, those involved in its development will have to work hard to bring this to the market, which will enable others with diabetes to achieve similar heights to those on the Tour.
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