Dietary Innovation
Dietary Assessment launch a new, innovative product with help from PAPI
Dietary Assessment Ltd is a Leeds-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, who have developed an online food diary solution to help address the global obesity and malnutrition crisis.
The solution, ‘myfood24’, was validated with biomarkers and used successfully in scientific research into diabetes and other diet-related health conditions as well as teaching. To build a solution for use in the healthcare market, Dietary Assessment approached PAPI for funding.
Diet tracking and assessment is an important tool for disease management but is typically conducted using paper-based methods (such as written food diaries) which are resource-intensive, costly, and recording errors can lead to misleading results. Consumer fitness and weight-loss apps do not stand up to the accuracy and rigour needed for clinical use.
Innovation
Leveraging latest technologies, Dietary Assessment began developing a new, disruptive, diet-monitoring mobile application to address the unmet need in the healthcare sector. The new, innovative solution would allow patients to accurately record their food and drink intake, while health practitioners would be able to personalise nutrition targets for their patients and set rules to prompt patients to modify their food and drink intake as necessary, in line with patient needs. The product would be built in 2 parts: a software as a service (SaaS) admin portal for healthcare professionals and mobile apps for patients to use on their smartphones.
Business growth
The company were awarded an £18,000 PAPI grant to support the development of the innovative new solution.
The new product allowed the company to secure customers in both the NHS and private healthcare markets. The company sees the new solution as key to accelerating the growth of the business, developing new strategic partnerships, generating new revenue and building market share.
The launch of the solution also lead to the creation of 3 new jobs within the business.
The PAPI grant has allowed us to enter the market place faster than we expected, which means we can deliver our innovative new app to the healthcare industry.