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Liva Healthcare wins funding to help treat pregnant women at risk of Type 2 diabetes

Liva Healthcare, the digital health coaching company, has this month secured funding from the EU Horizon 2020 fund to develop the: ‘Impact Diabetes Baby 2 Bump’ research project.

The company will work with researchers from seven universities including the University College Dublin, the University of Bristol and the University of Granada, to work towards finding the best way to treat mothers at risk of developing the condition.

Horizon 2020 is the European Union’s framework programme to boost research and innovation, which started in 2014, with a dedicated budget of around €77 billion.

In the UK, up to 5% of all women giving birth have either pre‑existing diabetes or gestational diabetes. The Impact Diabetes Bump 2 Baby project (IDB2B) starting in early 2020 will provide a screening tool to identify pregnant women at highest risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The program will also provide lifestyle change support through a personalised digital health coaching service. Results of the programme are expected to be delivered in 2021.

The program, focuses on an evidence-based life course, delivered through the Liva Healthcare app. The program will also extend to help mothers and babies after birth, supporting the infant’s first 1000 days.

Kristoffer From, the co-founder and CEO of Liva Healthcare “After huge success in the U.K working on the NHS Diabetes Prevention program this latest news brings Liva Healthcare to the forefront of cutting-edge research. We are proud to contribute to such important research that looks to prevent maternal and child diabetes. Our team are looking forward to working with other experts across Ireland, Spain, UK, Australia and Denmark.”

Sharleen O’Reilly, PhD, RD from the University College Dublin “We are grateful for the funding we have received from the EU to begin working on this exciting project. Pregnant women have previously been a more difficult-to-treat group and we welcome more research to speed up advancements care for expectant mothers”.