According to a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), participants in Omada Health's online diabetes prevention program Prevent maintained reductions in body weight and average blood sugar levels - two critical indicators of diabetes progression - across a two-year horizon. Becoming the first digital health company to publish two-year, peer-reviewed outcomes, Omada Health programs continue to demonstrate best-in-class clinical results for using intensive behavioral counseling to spur and maintain lifestyle changes. Prevent participants also demonstrated higher rates of program completion, and continued to engage with Prevent after the 12-month curriculum concluded.
"These results are another important step in the march towards full clinical acceptance of digital therapeutics," said Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy. "The scale of the chronic disease epidemic in this country is staggering. It demands innovative, scalable models for behavior and lifestyle change - especially for those at risk for diabetes or heart disease. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated that chronic disease accounts for 84 percent of U.S. health care costs; making this intensive behavioral counseling accessible and available for those who need it most is a clinical imperative, and an economic one. Omada's Prevent can be delivered to patients where and when they need it most, and now has proven results through two years. This study suggests that by encouraging engagement beyond 12 months, and allowing for ongoing health tracking and social support, digital therapeutics may be uniquely equipped to promote long-term, sustainable lifestyle changes."
Prevent participants achieved an 4.7 percent average weight loss after one year, maintaining a 4.2 percent average weight loss after two years. This degree of weight maintenance following weight loss is unusual among translations of the diabetes prevention program, and speaks to the power of Prevent's ongoing engagement levels during the second year. Even more encouraging, the study showed a sustained and clinically-meaningful reduction in hemoglobin A1c, a key marker of average blood sugar and diabetes progression, after two years. Prevent users, on average, moved from levels associated with prediabetes into a range associated with normal blood sugar levels. Prevent participants also exceeded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) benchmarks for engagement and program completion. These results are clinically meaningful, since a previously published study on the original diabetes prevention program's intensive behavioral counseling intervention showed that two-year weight loss was the strongest predictor of reduced diabetes risk and improvements in cardiometabolic traits.
"Traditional behavioral treatments have difficulty maintaining patient engagement and lifestyle changes," said Dr. Cameron Sepah, the study's lead author and Omada Health's Medical Director. "This study demonstrates that digital therapeutics like Prevent have the potential to disrupt - and vastly improve - the way we deliver group-based intensive behavioral counseling to the millions of Americans at risk for deadly, and costly, chronic disease. The study's results indicate that effective digital delivery of these programs lowers barriers to access, and may result in increased program engagement and completion - ultimately resulting in better health outcomes."
The CDC estimates that 86 million American adults are currently living with prediabetes - an 8 percent increase in the past decade - while describing chronic disease as "the public health challenge of our generation." In 2012, type 2 diabetes cost the United States over $245 billion in medical costs and lost productivity. Earlier this year, Prevent was among the first class of digital programs added to the CDC's national registry of recognized diabetes prevention programs, and with the publication of the study, is now the only one that has published two-year, peer-reviewed program results.
Omada Health's flagship digital therapeutic Prevent is the first-ever digital diabetes prevention program available to the public, moving the CDC's landmark DPP trial to an online setting. Prevent is a 16-week, immersive program, including a weekly curriculum focused on improving diet and physical activity, individualized health coaching, small group support, and smart technology (including a wireless scale and pedometer) to help people make lasting lifestyle changes. The program migrates the most effective behavioral interventions from a face-to-face to a digital setting, focusing on: personalizing the program to the needs of individual participants; tracking technology to make health changes easier; leveraging the power of social networking to bolster social support; and integrating world-class design to create a seamless, sustainable, and engaging user experience.