In its bid to encourage preventive mindset among people around diabetes, Lybrate, India’s first and largest online doctor consultation platform, has partnered with Metropolis Labs, to offer free blood sugar test for three days, starting World Health Day today, theme for which this year is diabetes.

Diabetes is playing a havoc among Indians with around 63 million people of the 1.2 billion population suffering from the disease, as per the recent announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that announced statistics for 2013. Medical experts put the current figure at around 67 million, while they say around 50 per cent cases remain undiagnosed due to lack of proper screening. Diabetes is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, blindness and disability.

Under the initiative, users can fill in the details – name, email-id and phone number – at https://www.lybrate.com/world-health-day to get a code that can be shown at any Metropolis Lab to avail the free test with first-cum-first-serve walk-in on 7th, 8th and 9th April in four cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

As per the analysis of around half a million interactions that happened on the topic of diabetes on the Lybrate platform, around 57 per cent people in tier 2 cities, including Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Indore, raised queries about diabetes prevention, while 35 per cent in urban areas wanted to know about the same in tier 1 cities. These interactions took place on the Lybrate platform over a period of 15 months, starting January 1 last year when the app was launched.

“Diabetes is a major health problem in the country. And at a time when it is posing a major health risk to the Indian population, these statistics are very important as they would play a pertinent role in devising key policies around Diabetes prevention. Lybrate is committed not only to ensure availability of quality doctors to everyone in the country but also to encourage preventive mindset among the population. Our tie-up with Metropolis Labs is a step to make people take a step toward their good health. Both the companies are aligned in their vision to ensure well-being of the Indian population and we are excited about the initiative,” said Saurabh Arora, founder & CEO, Lybrate.

Common queries that are being asked from tier 2 cities are on how to prevent diabetes, diet and exercise, types of the disease, and its gestational form. On the other hand, queries that people in metros put up are on dealing with the disease.

The interactions on the platform are defined by cumulative sum of searches for doctors, health queries sought, patient-doctor communication and appointments booked.

To help people understand the disease better and create awareness, Lybrate is also conducting ‘Lybrate – Ask the Specialist’ with renowned endocrinologist Dr S K Wangnoo of Apollo Hospital, Delhi on World Health Day. Indian Medical Association (IMA), of which Lybrate is the digital partner, provides the faculty for the initiative.

Founded by former professionals from Facebook and Snapdeal in 2014, Lybrate is India's number one medical app which allows users to discuss any health issue while keeping their identity anonymous. More than 90,000 doctors and health experts from varied branches of medicine from across India are connected to millions of patients through the technology-driven platform. With such strong network, Lybrate acts as the world's largest online Out Patient Department (OPD). The company raised $10.2 million from Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons Ratan Tata in Series A funding in July 2015. It received $1.23 million in seed funding in August 2014. Lybrate is also Indian Medical Association’s digital partner.