Diabetes Digital Media (DDM), the NHS, and Ascensia Diabetes Care have all partnered to bring DDM’s Low Carb program into the NHS. Through the new agreement, the digitally delivered, evidence-based behaviour change platform will become a supported part of the NHS Apps Library.
“It’s a clinically-proven program that is now being delivered digitally through an app system.” Ascencia Diabetes Care CEO Michael Kloss told MobiHealthNews in an interview on the sidelines of the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco. “And it’s a combination of recipe recommendations, coaching, and education on how to implement a low-carb diet. Its general target audience is people diabetes, prediabetes, or obesity.”
In the Low Carb program, users are educated on how to decrease their carbohydrate intake, are offered recipes and meal plans, and are encouraged to track their health data, including with connected fitness trackers and a number of Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Ascensia VP and global communications head Joseph Delahunty says his company is initially serving in a facilitator role, connecting DDM to the NHS.
“General practitioners are painfully busy and very stressed and unable to keep up with everything they need to do,” Kloss said. “DDM is a small startup doing exceptional work, but they don’t have the size to be able to penetrate the GP landscape and we’re offering that infrastructure to help them facilitate it in the UK.”
Delahunty says that Low Carb has already posted some significant results.
“It’s been clinically proven to reduce weight, it has been shown to reduce HbA1C, in some cases it’s been shown to reverse Type 2 diabetes,” Delahunty said. “It’s also been shown in around 40 percent of people, it enables them to drop a medication, so they take less medication because they’re able to treat it through their diet. So it’s a really good, well-proven program.”
Specifically, the program has demonstrated an average annual weight loss of 7.4 kg and HbA1c reduction of 1.2 percent, with 39 percent of patients placing their HbA1c under the threshold for type 2 diabetes diagnosis. The same study showed that 40 per cent of users eliminated at least one medication from their regimen.
