The Centers for Disease Control recently acknowledged for the first time three digital health programs for their ability to help counter the onset of Type 2 diabetes, leading to better outcomes and reduced spending.
The three digitally-centered programs that were recognized include startups Omada Health and Noom Health, as well as DPS Health, which was founded in 2004. All three programs aim to assist in the prevention or management of chronic diseases, ranging from obesity and diabetes and nutrition and weight loss.
Along with other programs, the digital health platforms met the evidence-based standards of the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
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Sean Duffy, CEO of San Francisco-based Omada, expressed excitement that the CDC “has chosen to embrace 21st century tools to fight chronic disease.”
CDC recognition is a defining step for Omada Health. This will expand dearly needed programs to a much wider audience, and signals that 2015 is the year that digital therapeutics are embraced by the diabetes prevention community,” he added in a statement.
The CDC estimates that one in three American adults — about 87 million people — has prediabetes. If left unchecked, 40 percent of all American adults will, at some point, be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. In 2012, the cost of diabetes treatment reached $245 billion, including direct medical spending and lost productivity. Over $500 billion of the estimated $3 trillion spent on healthcare last year was spent on conditions related to three chronic diseases: diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Omada initially started with Prevent to target diabetes and has since expanded to include cardiovascular disease.
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Noom Health, based in New York, develops health and wellness apps around nutrition. It’s probably most well known for its weight loss coach app, which gives advice to users on nutrition and exercise. In 2013, it secured a two-year NIH grant to study the effectiveness of an app to track binge eaters to gain insights into their behavior
Los Angeles-based DPS Health has developed web and cell phone-based patient obesity-related self-management interventions.