The results of OurPath’s trial for diabetes patients from North West London are in.
Diabetes has fully emerged as a public health crisis – where according to a recent analysis by Diabetes UK has demonstrated that the number of adults and teenagers with diabetes has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
Already, the NHS spends £1.2 million per hour on diabetes care alone. In light of this, OurPath has partnered with practitioners to tackle the epidemic and help save the NHS.
In 2017, OurPath collaborated with Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP) and six NHS North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to trial its platform to hundreds of patients across the capital. OurPath was one of three digital health providers to take part in the trials where a total of 18 GP practices participated.
OurPath results
The results were as follows for OurPath, according to the evaluation report published by ICHP:
- 72% uptake rate by eligible participants upon GP referral
- Average of 5.6kg weight loss during the trial, leading to the largest mean change in BMI in participants across all three digital health providers
- Participants rated the OurPath experience favourably, resulting in a Net Promoter Score of +70, compared to scores of <30 on other programmes
Participant feedback from OurPath focus groups within the trial offered insights into their experience:
- [Participants] said they feel much better following the programme, including feeling slimmer, healthier and happier. One said that the behaviour change programme had “changed her life”
- Participants who had previously used a fitness tracker alone preferred the OurPath programme
- [Participants] liked the element of competition with other patients in their group (e.g. for daily step count)
Key components of the OurPath programme
More information about the OurPath programme can be found here.
Overall trial results
Across all three digital health platforms patients on the trial saw:
- A significant reduction in body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and blood sugar (HbA1c) levels
- A reduction of average two to three kilograms of weight over the trial period
- In total, 118 patients participating provided details of their medication, of those 20 per cent were able to stop taking the diabetes medication Metformin during the trial
Along with the results – Dr. Tony Willis, the diabetes Clinical Lead for the North West London Collaboration of CCGs added praised the platforms:
“The results have been beyond our expectations. Historically, the education classes on offer for patients with Type 2 diabetes have seen low attendance. There was an excellent uptake of patients completing the trial using the apps. This alongside the clinically significant improvements in HbA1c, blood pressure and weight; show just how well people respond when they can receive support at the click of a button.”
You can find the original press release here.
