Personalised care planning gives better type 2 diabetes control

The drive towards personalised care continues with the development of new software called the Healum app.

Results of an 18-month trial presented at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference in March showed people who used it had an average 9.5% reduction in HbA1c blood glucose, compared with a 2% reduction in a comparable control group.

“A key challenge in long-term condition management is to motivate and support patients to make healthy choices and understand how to best manage their diabetes in a way that means something to them.”

Dr Adrian Heald, a diabetes specialist from Salford Royal Hospital, who led the National Institute for Health Research-funded study in Manchester

The app has so far been trialled in just 36 volunteers and the aim is now to collect data from a further 214 people to see how it can best be adjusted and refined.

Update: the trial’s full results were published in Diabetes Therapy in 2023. Over six months, HbA1c fell by an average of 7.4% for people with a Healum plan, against a rise of 1.8% in the control group. Read the results.

Designed with diabetes clinicians

The app has been developed by the co-founders of Healum, Anuj Saboo and Jonathan Abraham. They worked collaboratively with diabetes clinicians throughout the project, helping to inform the design of the product so it can work as a truly assistive technology to make doctors’ lives easier, and improve outcomes for patients.

First featured in Desang Diabetes magazine.