Dave Acosta is the Co-founder of EDC Solutions T1. Together with his wife Laura, EDC Solutions T1 was created in March, 2019. With a background in the firearms industry designing custom gun holsters, EDC stood for Every Day Carry. Today, it is even more appropriate for T1D.
Approached by a close family friend with T1D about creating a custom holster for his insulin pump, Dave was inspired to start creating personalized pump holsters for more T1D patients. It has given his family an opportunity to not only work hard, but to be a part of something bigger – opening their eyes to a whole community of people who fight for their health each day. It is an honor to be able to give individuals creative license to express themselves through customizing something so personal. Dave and his family put heart and soul into every aspect of what they do.
Hearing customers’ stories inspires them to continue to grow every single day. Dave and his family love what they do, and love customizing something that is unique as the individual wearing it. They are continually looking into the future and how they can continue to create and make life managing this disease less cumbersome for those with T1D and other challenges.
Lonny Stormo is CEO and co-founder of POPS! Diabetes Care. After a thirty-year career at Medtronic, where he was honored to serve as an executive and business leader, Lonny resigned his position to lead POPS! Diabetes Care. Significant portions of Lonny’s career include business leadership and sales for both devices and data. He serves the community through positions in Rotary International and the American Diabetes Association. Lonny holds a BSEE degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and an MBA from Arizona State University.
I was diagnosed with T1DM in 2002 at the end of my engineering studies. I soon discovered the difficult art of insulin management. Coming from an engineering background with a specialization in control theory, I realized that the tools I had studied and used as an engineer, could possibly be used to describe and analyze the glucose metabolism for deciding a better matched insulin dose to avoid excessive hypo- and hyperglycemia and for reducing the glucose variability. I decided to try this on my own data in my master thesis with interesting results. Later, I defended my PhD thesis on optimization of insulin management using smart mathematical algorithms to aid in the decision-making. This patent-pending technology formed the foundation for DIANOVATOR. Now, I’ve joined forces with like-minded partners and hope to contribute to making life with diabetes easier to manage, with fewer hypos, better time-in-range and just an overall improved quality of life with less anxiety about glucose levels and dosing decisions.
Maren Schinz, PhD, has lived with T1D since 2008 and has two passions: science and design. After graduating with honors, the post-doctoral biochemist had all the prerequisites for a promising science career. She started on this path but after some frustrating situations with her standard black nylon diabetes supplies case, she wanted to design bags that provided discretion and gave people the freedom to decide for themselves when to talk about their diabetes. “We cannot change your diabetes, but we can change your life with diabetes,” is the goal of the company mysugarcase, which has been awarded several top startup prizes since its launch in 2016.
Bola Lafe is the founder and Managing Director of Opus Innovations Ltd and a Director of TickleTec Ltd. Bola qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1992 but went on to enjoy a 21-year career in the Investment Banking sector based in London, New York and Tokyo. Despite a very successful international career that led him to become a Managing Director in 2006, Bola left to set up Opus in 2011, and became a Director of TickleTec in 2016. Both Opus and TickleTec are healthcare product companies that were set up to develop innovative and sustainable healthcare solutions that are of benefit to people, animals and the planet. Our focus is on diabetes, injection pain relief, infection prevention & control and ethical healthcare products. Bola was selected as one of the 2017 ‘Top 100 figures’ by The Manufacturer magazine in the UK for being ‘An Inspiring Leader’, ‘A Bold Investor’ & ‘A Driver of Cultural Change’.
Ziad Alame is the diabetic founder and CEO behind Spike Diabetes Assistant. After a decade of struggling with missed insulin injections and wrong dosages, Spike was born. Ziad is a dropout coder who has previously worked on multiple social tech startups dealing with education, crowdfunding, and employment. Ziad has been awarded multiple prizes globally including top 20 entrepreneurs by Executive Magazine for 2016 and the Arabian Business Achievement Award for 2018.
As for Spike, it is a mobile assistant that helps diabetics better manage their diabetes. Spike monitors the patient’s daily behavior and jumps in with reminders and tips when needed about insulin, food, activity, etc. In addition to that, Spike stores the patient’s data for further analysis and/or sharing with doctors and caregivers.
I have been CEO of different projects (from medical school to my own ideas) and thus, I have formed and guided teams to solve complex tasks through lean startup and scientific R&D. I founded Medicsen (team of 20) because a little girl with diabetes rejected the treatment in consult. I raised funds, successfully completed 3 individual R&D projects (algorithm for predicting glucose, user interface to increase adherence and non invasive drug delivery system), filed a patent and negotiated with pharma and tech companies in different countries. My goal is to help shape the use of technology in medicine, and I keep looking forward for new opportunities to keep learning and improving in business, technology, science and innovation.
Uwe Diegel was a concert pianist until the age of 26. Following an accident that partially restricted movement in his right arm, he started a new career in medical diagnostics, quickly developing a particular interest in chronic diseases such as hypertension, asthma, and diabetes. His intense scientific curiosity has led him not only to develop new technologies in these fields, but also to become interested in medical manufacturing, industrial design, and problems in Asian manufacturing.
Uwe lives in Paris, where he is CEO of HealthWorks Global, CEO of Lifeina, and conducts fundamental research in medical diagnostics. Today, he is considered to be a foremost expert in the fields of blood pressure management, diabetes, asthma, and the manufacturing of medical diagnostics devices.
In 2009, Uwe developed an interest in connected health as a means of providing better patient management. He became involved in iHealth, a platform that takes all the signals of the body and translates them into a meaningful format using smartphones and tablets. iHealth is today the world leader in the field of connected health. Uwe served as CEO of iHealthLabs Europe until 2016. He left iHealth in 2016 to work on the Lifeina project.
Uwe Diegel has been at the forefront of international changes in healthcare technology for the last 30 years. His drive and passion for innovative technology have spurred major changes in perception about healthcare. He has driven the manufacturing of medical devices to new horizons by forcing new practices in manufacturing and innovation. An internationally recognized expert in the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, he is continuously looking for better solutions to improve outcomes for patients. For the last few years, he has spearheaded the dissemination and acceptance of connected health as a tool for providing better solutions for patients.
Linh Le is a chemical engineer by training, he has published multiple papers, international conference proceedings and currently holds six US patent. He later found Bonbouton, a technology platform for preventative diabetic healthcare. Prior to that, he got his MS in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University and BS in Chemistry at Vietnam National University. As a vivid distance runner, he recently acquired ultra-marathoner title and plans to run all the World Marathon Major.
Bio to come.CEO and Co-founder of DIABNEXT, Laurent is a serial entrepreneur in Healthcare. Diagnosed T1D at 28 years old, he is passionate about creating digital health solution to help patients better manage their disease, winning several prestigious innovation awards in 2017.
Laurent also co-founded Boston Life Labs LLC in 2009, a smart vital signs medical devices company that was acquired by Nanthealth LLC in 2012. He previously co-founded and ran Assisteo Healthcare in 2006, one of France’s largest private home healthcare companies then acquired by DomusVi. Laurent graduted from ENSAM Paris and HEC Paris MBA.