People living with prediabetes face numerous, and sometimes overwhelming, choices each day that can drastically impact their long-term health. Making the right decisions about nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and stress management are important factors for overall health for most people, but are even more vital for those at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
This year’s theme for American Diabetes Month in November was ‘The Big Step Up’, which highlighted the big and small ways we can all recognize, reduce our risk, and ease the burden of diabetes. By bringing attention to the minute-to-minute decisions, we can all take the necessary steps to improve our overall health and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Our nation’s goal of preventing type 2 diabetes will only be within reach if these at-risk individuals have access to minute-to-minute care. Unfortunately, traditional in-person health care is not designed to support round-the-clock access to care. More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, and 90 to 95 percent of those people have type 2 diabetes. It’s clear from the high rate of type 2 diabetes that more needs to be done to halt this disease’s forward progression.
One enormous hurdle to diabetes prevention is that those with prediabetes are not empowered with information that allows them to take control of the moments that matter. More effective, personalized, intentional, and frequent intervention can increase patient self-efficacy, which is critical for helping those at-risk take control of their health and build and support sustained healthy habits, before they develop diabetes.
But how can we provide that kind of care to everyone who needs it? Our backgrounds as a care provider and as a patient managing a chronic disease as well as our experience in research and innovation in the field, have helped us witness how the virtual care ecosystem can close care access gaps and help people navigate daily decision-making.
By enhancing traditional in-person care with on-demand digital solutions, we can create a powerful new care model that maximizes clinical resources while meeting patients whenever and wherever they need support.
Programs based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) are evidence-based interventions that have been shown to lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent and are recommended by the Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes from the American Diabetes Association. The intervention can be delivered in various ways, including in-person, distance learning, and online. High-quality virtual diabetes prevention programs combine National DPP’s evidence-based care practices with technology that reaches people where they are, making it possible to educate, intervene, and address key risk factors. Virtual counseling, including those powered by conversational artificial intelligence (AI), have been shown to help people make meaningful behavior changes that ultimately drive their outcomes.
Users of these programs benefit from personalized coaching when they need it most—with no appointments to attend or calls to schedule in advance. Data can easily be logged by users or monitored through connected devices, empowering individuals to take control of their progress and take pride in improving their lifestyle habits. And because these tools are infinitely scalable, they have the unique power to reach almost anyone living with diagnosed prediabetes.
To be clear, virtual chronic care programs should not exist entirely outside of individuals’ relationships with their care teams and providers. Rather, these tools have a valuable role to play in remedying fragmented health care access and augmenting on-site care delivery.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there is more demand than ever before for seamless virtual care experiences—and we have seen unprecedented innovation in digital health as a result.
With 88 million adults in the U.S. living with prediabetes, there is enormous potential to deliver upstream care that can prevent this population from developing type 2 diabetes. Solutions that increase care touchpoints, engage patients, and get them more deeply engaged with their health will help improve outcomes, whether that be through weight loss management, nutrition counseling, or fitness coaching. However, we must ensure that such solutions are integrated with the health care system in a way that supports an easy, accessible interface for patients without adding a layer of fragmentation to their care coordination.
We are urging health plans and providers, as they assess their digital transformation journey, to invest in the health of those with prediabetes and at-risk for type 2 diabetes by incorporating virtual care into their existing health care infrastructure. When combined with a whole person treatment paradigm, these programs can help turn the tide of diabetes prevention toward compassionate and accessible—even life-changing—care for millions.
Together, we have an opportunity to address one of the greatest challenges in health care: empowering individuals to better manage their health and mitigate the progression of chronic conditions. We urge health care providers and professionals to use the virtual resources we have more efficiently to stem the tide against this disease.
Photo: Murat Gocmen, Getty Images
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