Q&A

James Jordan is president of Fishers-based Strategic Data Management. His five-person firm has developed a Web-based portal to help health-related businesses centralize their data. But Jordan also rigged the portal so it could import blood sugar and insulin dosage information from diabetic devices such as blood glucose monitors and insulin pumps. (Those devices can print out that information; SDM’s software intercepts the data sent to the printer and routes it to the Web portal.) Now, the portal is generating excitement among local health care providers and health plans.

IBJ: What sparked you to create this diabetes management portal now?

A: I’ve been developing software for health care for 15 years. My daughter has been a diabetic for 10 years. During that time, I’ve always been very frustrated with the tool set being provided by the name brand manufacturers [of blood glucose monitors and insulin pumps]. The tool set is very complicated. You look at it and you’ve got to be a Ph.D. to know what you’re looking at.

IBJ: You’ve got a pilot project you’re doing with Riley Hospital for Children. Describe how that got going and how the pilot is going so far.

A: Probably six months ago, I started using the business intelligence product to manage my daughter’s diabetes. I didn’t think a whole lot about it then. But my wife mentioned it to my daughter’s doctor and nurse at one of her visits, and they said, ‘We’d be interested to see that." I took it down to the nurses and doctors at Riley and they were blown away.

IBJ: What are your plans for this product after the pilot?

A: Our goal is in the next 90 days to have paying customers. Our business model is, we’re selling this to the providers, we’re selling this to the device manufacturers, we’re selling this to the payers. But for the consumer, it’s free. For providers, we should be able to submit a claim for the work that you’re doing on the portal. It falls under preventive maintenance. It helps them get paid for their time. We went over to St. V’s and showed them what we’re doing with Riley. They got excited. We’re talking to WellPoint, we’re taking to UnitedHealthcare, we’re talking to JDRF, we’re talking to FSSA. We’re talking to a lot of big players.