The theme for this year’s Diabetes Awareness Month is, ‘Access to Diabetes Care: If not now, when?’ urging greater access and care for people living with all types of diabetes.
Prayat Shah, Wellthy co-founder and Vice President of Partnerships, explains why type 2 diabetes is an important focus for our team and the wellthy CARE™ platform solution.
Diabetes, and in particular type 2 diabetes, is one of the most common chronic diseases that exists today. Globally there are approximately 463 million adults living with diabetes. The International Diabetes Foundation estimates that by 2030, 578 million adults will be living with a diabetic condition, growing to 700 million by 2045. Diabetes also increases the risk of other health problems or comorbidities – such as renal failure, cardiovascular issues, and glaucoma. Therefore, the care needed for people living with all types of diabetes greatly increases over time, especially when their condition is not managed well.
Access to healthcare services can often depend on someone’s location, wealth, knowledge, and acquaintances. However, with increased access to technology and 80% of the world’s population now owning a smartphone, digital health can break down these access barriers – and this is a huge focus for us and our partners.
In 1921 – 100 years ago – insulin was discovered, which completely changed the way both type 1 and type 2 diabetes were treated and continues to be treated today. Digital innovation has the power to do just the same.
As a leading digital therapeutics (DTx) company, Wellthy’s expert-led team creates intelligent, clinically validated solutions using the wellthy CARE™ platform, which connects the dots across the healthcare ecosystem. We’re incredibly excited to be right at the heart of the digital health revolution, working alongside life sciences partners, clinicians, and patients across Europe and Asia to accelerate new developments that will further transform the lives of those with complex chronic conditions like type 1 and 2 diabetes.
There are so many aspects of type 2 diabetes that impact treatment, management, and quality of life – from medical factors like attending regular clinical appointments or when and how often to take medication, to lifestyle factors such as eating healthily, exercising, and successfully managing stress. Through our collaborations with life science partners, we’ve learned just how important it is to understand the patient experience, in order to create solutions that make a genuine difference. This is why, whether we’re building a companion solution to support an existing treatment or a standalone DTx, we always map patient journeys and experiences to ensure that it can be both personalized and scalable at the same time.
Fortunately, because it is easily recognised by doctors, most people living with type two diabetes are diagnosed and treated early, particularly in more economically developed countries. But often management of their condition – including lifestyle and adherence to medication and care plans – is left by the wayside. This is an equally, if not more important, part of managing type 2 diabetes because it can help avoid future medical complications and related healthcare conditions affecting the heart, liver, kidneys, brain, circulatory system, and nervous system.
As well as using innovative ways to remind people to take their medicines, and test their blood sugar levels regularly, in collaboration with life sciences partners, we have also created solutions but also to change their behaviors towards eating, alcohol intake, exercising, sleeping, and attending clinical consultations.
One of our longest-standing partnerships is with a medical devices company based in South Asia that manufactures blood glucose monitors. We worked with them to develop a companion digital therapeutic for anyone that had been prescribed the glucose monitor to encourage them to test their blood glucose levels more regularly. In that project alone, we’ve already supported close to 40,000 individuals to improve their health through digital behavior change and lifestyle management interventions. Together with the medical devices partner, we’ve also co-authored four different papers, including Global Medical Forums and the American Diabetes Association, which show that combining our solution with the medical device eventually leads to a significant improvement in testing frequency, which has also positively influenced their health outcomes.We saw:
- A 130% increase in the average blood glucose logging per user every month
- In two months peripheral blood glucose (PBG) and arterial blood glucose (ABG) fell 15%
- Blood glucose variability fell 23% from 32.83% to 19.69% over 6 months
We’re very proud of what we’ve already achieved to support those affected by type 2 diabetes, however, we know this is just beginning. We’ve also learned that success will always lie in effective collaboration right across the healthcare system, uniting life sciences, technology, health systems, clinicians, and cares with a common purpose – improving health outcomes to change lives.
References:
- Krishnakumar, Arjun, et al. “907-P: Impact of Using a Digital Therapeutic and Blood Glucose Meter on Glycemic Control and Variability.” (2020).
If you are interested in finding out more about our expertise in chronic and complex medical conditions or using software as a medical device to successfully drive your digital initiatives, contact Malvika , the AVP – Strategy and Business development at Wellthy Therapeutics and focuses on driving commercial success by developing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders like pharmaceutical organizations, biotech companies in Europe and Asia to lead the development and commercialization of digital health solutions through outcome-focused business models.
malvika.sharma@wellthy.care
