Arianna Gehan ’24 was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11 years old. She turned her experience growing up with the disease into a business venture through participation in Stevens’ entrepreneurial Launchpad program.

As a child, Gehan managed her diabetes through a continuous glucose monitor. Changes in her blood sugar levels would be communicated to her parents through the monitor and if there was ever a dangerous spike or dip in her blood sugar, potentially life-saving measures could be taken immediately. When Gehan started college at Stevens, she stopped sharing her blood sugar information with her parents, as she sought independence. However, she worried about managing her diabetes on her own.

Enter Daia Health, an app that allows for smarter real-time sharing of blood sugar values to make living with diabetes safer. The app can provide immediate information about the user’s blood sugar levels to a specified person for a fixed amount of time (a work colleague at a conference, for example) in case of emergency, as well as the location of the person with diabetes and information on how to administer glucagon (an emergency medication to raise blood sugar). The goal, explains Gehan, is to give the emergency contact enough information to be able to assist in a low blood sugar emergency.

The app was published to the Apple App Store on June 26, with a limited launch for feedback purposes planned for September. The aim is to launch Daia Health on a full basis by the end of the year, Gehan says.

“The process of getting to our launch took much longer than I initially anticipated, but I was also balancing building Daia with my classes,” Gehan says. “Our launch feels very tangible and imminent, which is a little scary, but I am extremely proud of the work our team has put in and am excited to hopefully help more diabetics!”

Gehan’s work in developing the app with her co-founder, Frank Pinnola ’22 M.S. ’24, has been well received. She earned Stevens’ Biomedical Engineering Excellence Award and was named a Rising Star by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association last September. Gehan also won Mission 50’s first Hudson County-wide collegiate Entrepreneurial Pitch Competition.

– Charles O'Brien