1.10: Overview of SMDC (Self-Managed Diabetic Care Inc.)
- Page ID
- 48766
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Overview of SMDC (Self-Managed Diabetic Care Inc.)
Your Living Case Study
Throughout this course, you will work inside a simulated project environment based on a startup called Self-Managed Diabetic Care Inc. (SMDC). This fictional company serves as the foundation for all milestone tasks, decision scenarios, stakeholder memos, and risk challenges.
SMDC is not a hypothetical “business case” you analyze from the outside. It is an evolving system you will step into—as if you were embedded in the company as a risk analyst, strategist, or project lead. You will act on behalf of SMDC, helping shape critical decisions through structured risk thinking.
This section introduces the background, mission, and operating landscape of SMDC, as well as the risks, constraints, and opportunities that define its journey. Understanding this context is essential for all subsequent work in the course.
The Mission
SMDC was founded by a small group of technologists, clinicians, and health equity advocates to solve a persistent problem in chronic care: the lack of accessible, integrated, and empowering data tools for people living with diabetes.
Specifically, SMDC is developing a data dashboard and digital platform that helps individuals with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes manage their health more effectively. The dashboard is designed to:
- Consolidate data from wearable devices (e.g., glucose monitors, insulin pumps, smartwatches)
- Provide real-time feedback and trend visualizations
- Support clinician-patient communication
- Offer personalized insights and alerts
- Increase patients’ sense of control over their own health decisions
The company’s tagline reflects its mission:
“Your data. Your dashboard. Your decisions.”
At its heart, SMDC is trying to shift power and agency back to patients—while also creating tools that clinicians, caregivers, and researchers can use to improve outcomes and reduce preventable harm.
Why Diabetes?
Diabetes is a data-driven disease. People with diabetes track their blood glucose multiple times a day, adjust insulin doses, log meals and exercise, and manage medication timing. However, these data streams are often:
- Fragmented across devices and apps
- Hidden behind proprietary platforms
- Lacking context or real-time usefulness
- Not easily shareable with care teams or family members
The result: many patients operate in a constant state of risk, anxiety, and guesswork. SMDC believes that better tools can reduce harm, reduce emergency care, and improve quality of life.
The Product Vision
SMDC’s initial product is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): a web-based dashboard that consolidates data from three major device types and provides customizable visualizations and alerts. The MVP will:
- Launch with 50 test patients and 3 clinical partners
- Include integration with at least one glucose monitoring device and one fitness tracker
- Be developed in 6 months
- Operate with a seed budget of $250,000
- Comply with relevant HIPAA data protection regulations
If successful, SMDC plans to expand the product to include:
- AI-based trend predictions
- Broader device interoperability
- Care team messaging tools
- Multilingual interfaces for equity and access
The Startup Context
SMDC is a classic early-stage startup: high potential, limited resources, and constant pressure to move quickly without compromising safety. The team includes:
- 3 full-time engineers
- 1 part-time regulatory consultant
- 1 clinical advisor
- 1 product manager
- 1 operations and marketing coordinator
The founders are passionate but stretched thin. They are working in a fast-moving environment where regulatory rules shift, stakeholder needs evolve, and technical decisions often carry downstream consequences for safety, equity, and trust.
As the embedded risk analyst in this world, your job is not to slow the project down—it is to help the team make better decisions, earlier, with greater clarity.
Key Stakeholders
In the SMDC ecosystem, you’ll encounter a range of internal and external stakeholders:
- Patients – individuals with diabetes (and their caregivers) who use the dashboard daily
- Clinicians – physicians, nurses, and educators who interpret the data and integrate it into care
- Regulators – agencies like the FDA and HHS that oversee compliance and public safety
- Device Manufacturers – companies that build and protect the APIs and data streams
- Investors and Funders – angel investors who want to see progress and impact
- Community Health Advocates – who care about underserved populations and data justice
Each stakeholder has different risk sensitivities, priorities, and constraints. One of your challenges will be learning how to assess risk not just technically, but politically and ethically, across this diverse landscape.
Initial Constraints
Like most startups, SMDC faces several hard limitations that shape its risk landscape:
- A fixed development timeline (6 months to MVP)
- Limited funding and staff capacity
- Third-party device restrictions and limited APIs
- Unclear FDA guidance for certain predictive tools
- Patient populations with varying levels of digital literacy
- The need to launch with a real-world use case, not a theoretical one
You will return to these constraints throughout the course. They define the operating environment of your risk recommendations and response strategies.
Why This Case Was Chosen
SMDC was created specifically for this course because it captures what real project managers and analysts face every day:
- Fast timelines with unclear information
- Mission-driven goals complicated by technical and stakeholder risks
- The pressure to act without complete certainty
- The need for tools that support strategic communication, not just spreadsheets
By immersing yourself in this simulated organization, you will:
- Apply professional risk tools in a context that feels real
- Experience how risks emerge, evolve, and interact across functions
- See how values like safety, equity, and clarity show up in risk work
- Practice making decisions that affect others—before doing so in real life
Your Role in the SMDC World
You are now part of the SMDC extended team. You will receive memos, tackle problems, and deliver insights that shape the project’s future. You may not have total control, but you do have something powerful: the ability to see what others miss, and the skills to bring that insight forward in a clear, timely, and trustworthy way.
This is your training ground. The dashboard may be fictional, but the decisions—and the growth—are real.