Who is involved?

The West of England Academic Health Science Network is the lead organisation for the Diabetes Digital Coach Test Bed, which is an innovative partnership programme between:

• Corsham Institute
• Diabetes UK
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Ki Performance
• LeLan / SocialDiabetes
• Mapmyhealth
• Oviva
• Rescon
• ROutcomes
• Soupdragon Resources
• HEOR

Various member organisations within the West of England Academic Health Science Network will play a significant role in testing the digital platforms in a ‘real world setting’. These are:

• All seven CCGs in our area (Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire)
• Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust
• North Bristol NHS Trust
• SEQOL
• Sirona Care & Health
• Bristol Community Health

Patient population size

Our Test Bed covers a population of 2.4 million

Description

In 2013, almost 2.9 million people were diagnosed with diabetes in the UK, and incidence rates are increasing, with more than 1 in 20 people estimated to have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes. Necessary lifestyle changes, as well as the complexities and possible side effects of therapy, make patient education and self-management important aspects of diabetes care. Indeed, 99% of diabetes care falls to self-management.

Our collective vision for Diabetes Digital Coach is to ‘enable every citizen to self-care in their own way to the benefit of their health, both physical and mental.’ This Test Bed gives the opportunity for healthcare commissioners, hospitals and community providers to work with a number of companies with self-management products already on the market in order to experiment with and evaluate different innovative approaches and technologies.

Bringing together mobile health self-management tools (wearable sensors and supporting software) with the latest developments in connecting monitoring devices (Internet of Things), the Test Bed will enable people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes to ‘do the right thing at the right time’ to self-manage their condition. It will also encourage more timely and appropriate interventions from peers, healthcare professionals, carers and social networks.

The benefits will be realised at three key levels:

• Individuals with diabetes will gain a comprehensive, real-time view of their own data, which will inform their self-management strategies as they uncover hidden patterns, trends and relationships that are not considered through conventional treatments options. This will enable them to take prompt actions to prevent their condition deteriorating.
• Individuals can share this information and knowledge with relevant healthcare professionals, who will then be better able to prioritise the needs of patients on their caseload and offer appropriate support and advice.
• The project subsequently intends to aggregate data, information and knowledge to gain a real-time (as opposed to historic) and population-wide view of the health status of people with diabetes to nudge and promote behaviours to improve health.

Website: www.diabetesdigitalcoach.org