At Eucalyptus, we’re always looking for new ways to improve our patient experience. We developed the Juniper app to empower our patients to lose weight on their own terms, including progress tracking, education and 1:1 support from our professional team of health coaches and medical practitioners. But we knew there was more work to do.
That’s why our team is thrilled to announce the launch of a new feature, designed to give Juniper patients even more insight into their weight loss journey — wearables integration.
Track seamlessly with wearable integration
It’s now easier than ever for Juniper patients to track their holistic health journeys. The Juniper app now connects to wearable health and fitness trackers, including Apple, Fitbit and Garmin. This allows patients to view key health data, all in one place, including activity tracking, heart rate monitoring and blood glucose tracking, along with weight and waist measurements.
With connectivity to smart scales already enabled, we set out to enrich the tracking experience even further. Wearable devices allow patients to track their progress beyond weight alone, aligning with our holistic approach to weight management.
These devices also allow patients and practitioners, namely health coaches, to track cardio and strength activity, both key elements of the Juniper Strength Program.
What health data can patients track?
Activity: Workouts and energy burned
Tracking activity with a device is a great way to stay motivated and accountable while working towards movement goals.
Depending on the device patients use, they can view details like their workouts and calories burned all within the Juniper app.
By tracking their activity, patients are also providing deeper insights to their health coach. Coaches are able to view their patients' activity tracking and offer personalised feedback and advice, ensuring accountability and a holistic view of a patient's progress.
Blood glucose, or Blood Sugar Level (BSL)
Monitoring with Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) can give patients a deeper understanding of how the foods they eat and the exercises they do affect their blood glucose.
Research links chronically high blood glucose levels to weight gain. CGMs help wearers discover what foods spike blood sugar, and what exercises help to lower it.
Thanks to the connectivity to our practitioner dashboard, Eucalyptus health coaches interpret their patients' CGM data and empower them with that information to help them make the best choices for their health.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
HRV data gives health coaches insights into our patients' stress and general fitness levels. Changes in a patient's HRV over time, in addition to their weight loss and CGM data, paint a more complete picture of their health.
What devices can patients connect to?
- Apple
- Fitbit
- Garmin
- Withings
- Xiaomi
- FreeStyle Libre Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs)
How does this data look in use?
On the tracking tab, patients will see a simplified overview of all of their device data. If patients want to see their data in more detail, they only need to tap into the individual card they would like to view in-depth.
We’ve also included education on activity, blood glucose and HRV monitoring should patients wish to learn more.
Levelling up the coaching experience
Coaches can view patient device data through our bespoke practitioner platform. Patients can reach out to health coaches via in-app chat to discuss their progress. With access to a patient's device data, coaches can deliver hyper-personalised support and provide actionable tips for them to stay on track to meet their goals.
How did we build it?
Our patients track their health journeys on a variety of different devices, meaning we would need to integrate with an array of providers to meet their needs. To accomplish this, we used a third-party service called Terra. They provide a unified interface to interact with hundreds of different health data sources, and then transform this data into a structured manner for usage.
Here's a basic sequence diagram showing how a user connects a device to the Juniper app and views their data:
What we did well
The traffic to our servers for this feature behaves vastly differently from our normal load due to continuously receiving data in the background, rather than just when users load up our app. So when designing the solution, we optimised for reads over writes. Since we receive data in the background, we can afford to spend time transforming it into the format our patients and practitioners care about before storing it. We then save time later on when our end users query this data.
What we could have done differently
Trying to design a one-size-fits-all solution is challenging when there are so many different devices to consider. This caused us to miss some intricacies when presenting data in the best format to patients and practitioners alike. Our key learning from this is to build with intention. If we were to build this again, we’d really drill down into where the value is for each type of health tracker, then build this one by one.
We’re committed to empowering both practitioners and patients with technology and hope our latest efforts to integrate with wearable health devices allow patients to gain a more holistic view of their health journey with Juniper.
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