A new project underway is creating a roadmap for large health care organizations to partner with their patients to fight off type 2 diabetes when they are most at risk of developing the disease. The program spurs patients to make the necessary behavioral changes and gives care teams the data they need to keep their patients healthy.
The project is a collaboration of the AMA, Omada Health, a digital behavioral medicine company, and Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, an industry leader in the adoption of innovative prevention care strategies to reduce costs while providing high-quality care.
The group Tuesday announced a new effort aimed at reducing the alarming number of adults who develop type 2 diabetes. The project will allow Intermountain physicians and care teams to track their patients’ progress through an evidence-based online diabetes prevention program offered by Omada.
“This collaboration expands upon the AMA’s robust efforts to prevent type 2 diabetes in this country through the scalable adoption of proven innovative tools and resources that can help physicians better manage patients with chronic conditions,” said AMA President Andrew W. Gurman, MD, in a press release. “Together we hope to showcase a continuum of care model that bridges technology and clinical care in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
Improving patient care
Access to real-time actionable data from Omada allows care teams to create specific, proactive touch points with patients to support their completion of the program.
Participating in evidence-based diabetes prevention programs can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by nearly 60 percent, research has shown. Up to 90 percent of people with prediabetes are unaware that they have the condition. It’s estimated that one in 20 adults—more than 114,000 people—are living with prediabetes within Intermountain’s service area.
“Intermountain’s integration of the Omada program, and [the] AMA’s focus on ensuring digital tools work to empower providers will give patients with prediabetes another proven option to meet their care needs,” said Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy. “It will also give physicians and their care teams additional treatment options and actionable data to better understand how to deliver lasting lifestyle change for those in need of it.”
Last year, Omada became the first digital health company to publish peer-reviewed results demonstrating that program participants maintained reductions in body weight and average blood sugar levels—critical indicators of diabetes progression—two years after beginning the program.
Learn more about preventing type 2 diabetes
- Take an inside look at one physician’s success story as a prediabetic patient
- Learn how to diagnose prediabetes
- Find out how a practice in Minnesota is preventing diabetes
- Learn three steps you can take to address prediabetes in your practice
- Check out the AMA-CDC initiative Prevent Diabetes STAT: Screen, Test, Act—Today™
