Exciting news from another startup in incubation at Empowered Startups. Viedial, a company focused on helping people identify and manage their risk of cardiovascular disease, launched a new guide aimed at helping Canadians and Nigerians prevent pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes and managing their risk of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada, and it is especially common among people with diabetes.
The good news is that 80% of cardiovascular diseases are preventable when people can identify and treat the behavioural and metabolic risk factors in time. People with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease like a heart attack or a stroke than people without diabetes, but by taking action to prevent diabetes, you are reducing your risk for cardiovascular diseases.
The healthcare system is not always effective in helping people identify these risk factors, which is why patient education, lifestyle coaching, and remote monitoring programs could serve as a complement to traditional healthcare. Many preventive programs are focused on preventing type 2 diabetes among people with pre-diabetes, an important intervention, however, it may be even more effective to prevent pre-diabetes from occurring. With this in mind, Viedial also launched a program for Canadians with a family history of type 2 diabetes named “Prevent Pre-diabetes.” The programs are two components of the venture’s ambitious plans for a comprehensive approach to cardiovascular health.
Co-founder and CEO of Viedial, Bridget Akudo Nwagbara, brings her experience as a medical doctor and public health specialist to the company’s mission. Her work in designing and implementing population-level interventions for cardiovascular disease prevention and control has led to the development of these innovative programs.
“I’ve lost loved ones, including my father, to either a heart attack or stroke. I also observed that many people in my family and community were living with metabolic risk factors like type 2 diabetes or hypertension. Unfortunately, this is not a priority in most low- and middle-income countries where the funding priorities are focused on infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Based on my experience in the Nigerian public health sector, I realized that the priority shift towards cardiovascular diseases will take a long time. Therefore, the response had to be from the private sector, which led to the founding of Viedial.” — Bridget Akudo Nwagbara, Co-founder and CEO of Viedial
Alongside rolling out education and coaching programmes, Viedial will continue development of the platform to track patients’ health records and progress towards their health goals. They will work with health care providers to educate their patients and onboard clinical teams to launch a virtual clinical care program for metabolic diseases.
“My co-founders and I came together to address the problem of cardiovascular diseases. We started by supporting health system reforms in Nigeria to put cardiovascular diseases and other non-communicable diseases into the national public health priorities. Then, we decided to form Viedial to implement these interventions. As a private entity, we needed an enabling environment to incubate our idea and extend the intervention to the African Diaspora in North America. We joined Empowered Startups to gain experience in the North American market as we launched our venture in Canada.” — Bridget Akudo Nwagbara, Co-founder and CEO of Viedial.
About Viedial
Viedial is a digital health application that will enable people to identify their risk factors for cardiovascular disease. It will provide personalized care to enable them to make behavioral and lifestyle changes to reduce these risk factors with the support of their loved ones and will monitor the changes in their health from anywhere and anytime.
Contact information
Bridget Akudo Nwagbara, C0-Founder and CEO
[email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/viedial-healthcare/?viewAsMember=true
https://www.viedial.ca (Canada)
https://www.viedial.com (Nigeria)
About Empowered Startups
Empowered Startups is an Innovative Startup Incubator and foundry headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With offices in Canada, France, and Portugal, we train/mentor/ and network entrepreneurs to successfully launch new businesses in diverse markets. As a foundry we also conceive, build and launch our own products and solutions. Empowered Startups is recognized by the Canadian Government as a designated start-up business incubator and is known internationally for growing ideas into sustainable businesses using both a virtual and on-site model. Our training tools and mentorship are used and recognized by leading global university labs, Startup incubators, and innovation hubs. Apply for our programs online at empoweredstartups.com
Photo by April Laugh on Unsplash
