Are you interested in the newest technologies for the management of diabetes? A new review article on mobile apps for type 2 diabetes prevention and management has been published. Lead author and CDHI PhD candidate Roman Keller shares a summary with us:

Advancement in technology has offered new opportunities for diabetes care. In tandem with the innovation of new digital technologies in this field, venture capital companies have been investing in companies that offer mobile applications aiming to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes.

Our review aimed to identify the most-funded companies offering such digital interventions and the level of scientific evidence underpinning the companies’ apps. In addition, the study examined if these digital interventions use novel technological developments such as chatbots or just-in-time adaptive interventions.

The results indicate that the level of funding received by those companies does not match the level of scientific evidence on the effectiveness of the solutions offered by them. In fact, the scientific evidence of the digital interventions varies considerably. We call for more rigorous effectiveness trials and transparent reporting by quality assurance authorities to ensure that stakeholders and consumers can identify the most effective digital diabetes intervention according to their needs. Moreover, very few digital interventions integrate automated approaches, such as chatbots and just-in-time adaptive interventions, to automate and scale-up intervention delivery.

CDHI researchers involved in this article: Roman Keller, Sven Hartmann, Gisbert Teepe, Kim-Morgaine Lohse, Aishah Alattas, Florian von Wangenheim, Jacqueline Louise Mair, & Tobias Kowatsch.

If this topic is of interest to you, you can learn more about our research into the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes on our dedicated project page.

Reference:

Keller, R., Hartmann, S., Teepe, G., Lohse, K.M., Alattas, A., Tudor Car, L., Müller-Riemenschneider, F., von Wangenheim, F., Mair, J., Kowatsch, T., Digital Behavior Change Interventions for the Prevention and Management of Type 2 Diabetes: Systematic Market Analysis, Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) 24(1):e33348.