ABU DHABI // Four UAE cyclists
will join an international pack on a 2,100-kilometre European tour that will
test smartphone technology designed to help manage diabetes.
The four Etisalat workers will
provide blood-sugar readings on the 13-day tour from Brussels to Barcelona,
which is also being staged to raise awareness of the disease.
Faisal Alreyaysa, 29, an Emirati
working at Etisalat’s carrier and wholesale services in Dubai, will be tackling
the final and hardest leg of the journey with his cycling partner – through the
Pyrenees mountains.
For Mr Alreyaysa, the cause is
personal.
“A lot of people are suffering from diabetes,”
he said. “The majority of my family who are aged more than 40 are suffering
from diabetes.”
Up to 36 riders in the mHealth
Grand Tour will be taking part in a live clinical study on the effects of days
of exercise on blood- glucose levels in people with Type 1 diabetes, and in
non-sufferers.
The event is being run by the
global mobile trade association GSMA and the International Diabetes Federation.
The volunteers will wear glucose
monitors that are attached to the skin and transmit data.
As they cycle, a bio-harness will
take their heart rates and a small computer will record cycling statistics such
as speed.
The data will be transmitted to
the riders’ smartphones, allowing them to track their health and performance,
and to a web portal where it will be available for analysis by a team at
Newcastle University, in northern England.
“Gathering and transmitting healthcare data
wirelessly demonstrates that mobile-phone technology can be used in the remote
diagnosis, treatment and long-term monitoring of this debilitating disease in
hospitals all over the world,” said Ahmad Julfar, chief executive of Etisalat
Group.
Mr Alreyaysa and the three other
UAE riders were chosen from more than 500 applicants from Etisalat’s 15
international operations including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Tanzania and Sudan.
They will be joined by five other
Etisalat workers from abroad.
At the start of this month, 35
gathered in the UAE and underwent physical and psychological tests before the
final team was selected. The chosen riders will each do a different leg of the
route.
Sara Coppo, senior manager for
Etisalat Group Commercial living in Dubai, will cycle through France, with
another cyclist covering about 550km in three days.
Mrs Coppo, 43, from Italy, said
she wanted to represent her company in a good cause and set an example to her
children, aged 2 and 6.
“It’s an opportunity to teach them that if you
want to do something, you just need to make a big effort to get it and you can
get anything you want,” she said.
Abdul Aziz Al Sawaleh, Etisalat
Group chief human resources officer, led recruitment of volunteers from across its operations.
“In participating in this cycle ride, our staff
are standing up and showing that they, too, want to contribute to the global
fight against diabetes,” Mr Al Sawaleh said.
“Not only are they raising awareness in their
communities and pursuing more active lifestyles, they are making a tangible
contribution to developing real solutions to the disease.”
Jeanine Vos, the GSMA’s executive
director of mHealth and education, explained how mobile technology could help
in monitoring a diabetic person’s condition.
“Vital stats could be sent across a network and
then shared with relevant people, whether that’s their doctor, whether that’s
their carer, or maybe shared back to themselves so they can track information
over time,” Ms Vos said.
Among its other benefits, the
system allows doctors to send advice back to their patient, and an alert can be
set up to tell a diabetic that their blood-glucose levels have dropped.
The tour starts on September 5.
ecleland@thenational.ae
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