Multiple self-monitoring digital technologies for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have demonstrated a reduction in blood glucose levels, along with improvement in healthy eating behaviors, and physical exercise.
I. Applications for the management of Diabetes Mellitus
1. Nutrition apps:
- Users can look-up nutritional values on carbohydrates, fat, protein, and energy content; and accordingly manage meal planning and insulin dose adjustment
- Examples of apps include: Carbs and Cals
, CarbControl
, Foodily
, Healthy
, Low Carb Program
2. Physical activity apps:
3. Glucose monitoring apps:
- Users can log patients' glucose data, which can assist patients with better management of glucose control. The application charts blood glucose levels and enables sharing with friends and healthcare providers.
- Besides logging blood glucose levels, some applications also provide features such as medication tracking, carbohydrate, and insulin intake tracker, barcode scanner
- Examples include: Dexcom Share
, Diabetic
, Diabetes Companion
, Diabetes in Check
, Glooko Mobile App
, Tidepool Mobile
4. Insulin titration apps:
- Besides monitoring glucose charts, the app is specifically designed for diabetics to calculate their basal, prandial, and correction insulin doses.
- A device that also offers support on insulin titration has been recently given FDA approval. The d-Nav Insulin Guidance System (Hygieia, Livonia, MI, USA) is a handheld device that is used to measure glucose, determine glucose patterns, and automatically determine the appropriate next insulin dose.
- According to the results of a recent clinical trial, published in the Lancet, the use of Hygieia application along with healthcare provider (HCP) support demonstrated superiority in the management of diabetes management, as opposed to HCP support alone.
- FDA-approved applications include WellDoc BlueStar, Voluntis Insulia, Sanofi MyDose Coach, Glooko Mobile Insulin Dosing System, Amalgam iSage Rx, and Hygieia d-Nav Insulin Guidance System.
- WellDoc has clinically demonstrated a reduction in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) between 1.7 to 2.0 points.
- In a clinical trial, iSage Rx has also shown an average reduction in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels by 1.04 points, by the completion of the study.
5. Insulin delivery apps:
Insulin pumps and smartpens gather data on insulin delivery, which is integrated with applications that also gather information on blood glucose levels. These applications provide better decision support for the management of diabetes.
6. Other:
Results of other clinical trials investigating the efficacy of other digital avenues for the management of diabetes mellitus can be found in the table here.
II. Websites/Programs for the management of Diabetes Mellitus
Research Strategy:
Please note that the purpose of this research strategy document is to: (i) translate the client's questions into addressable research aims; (ii) conduct one-hour preliminary research; (iii) highlight applications related to the management of diabetes mellitus, which shall serve as a groundwork for Wonder researchers; and (iv) outline a research strategy based on two broad project scopes. Our preliminary search through one-hour indicated that information regarding web-based platforms is limited and outdated. Lately, mobile-based applications are the mainstream arena for the management of diabetes. Here we presented different areas where diabetes management is directly or indirectly required, such as the management of nutrition/calorie intake, physical exercise log, medications, and insulin intake, and blood glucose measurements. In-depth research is required to elaborate on the outlined project scopes.