Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched a trial utilising smart technologies with the aim of reversing the risk of nerve damage in people living with type 2 diabetes.
The OCEANIC trial will use technologies including wearable sensors, smart weighing scales and activity trackers, to monitor and share patient progress on metrics including body fat and muscle mass, with the view to reinforcing lifestyle changes. The study group will receive personalised education and exercise programmes, delivered through virtual sessions, group sessions and one-to-one consultations, in order to explore whether “intensive strategies” to manage risk factors can halt or reverse diabetes-related nerve damage, when identified at an early stage.
Looking to the future, Professor Solomon Tesfaye, consultant physician and diabetologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, comments that delivery of the trial is an “important next step in our bid to demonstrate the widespread benefit of giving patients kidney, eye and foot checks at the same time, to prevent dialysis, sight and limb loss, respectively.”
The role of digital and tech in diabetes management
At the end of last year, Milton Keynes University Hospital announced a collaboration with Milton Keynes City Council, EXI, Apple and Loughborough University, with a view to help tackle diabetes through the use of technology and financial incentives to help encourage lasting behavioural change.
NHS England launched a five-year implementation strategy for hybrid closed loop technologies, recognising them as “the next step in the evolution of diabetes technology”, and shared details around a pilot of the technology for adults and children with type 1 diabetes.
A study published in The Lancet in June explored behaviour change techniques for diabetes self-management mobile apps, producing findings indicating that self-monitoring behaviour as a behaviour change technique and taking medication as a target behaviour were both associated with improved metabolic outcomes.
Also from the region
In other news from Yorkshire, May saw us report on a partnership between South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Beckett University aiming to digitise the trust’s adult ADHD and autism service to support with diagnosis and prioritisation of services.
Also in May, HTN shared how Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust launched new digital data centre at its Dewsbury and District Hospital site, designed to “support the 24/7 operation of a vast range of digital systems” underpinning clinical and non-clinical activities.
For South Yorkshire in particular we noted the announcement of a three-year partnership between The South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub and Google, with the view of bringing investment in the region’s health tech research and training.
And you can find the Yorkshire-focused feature of our recent series exploring digital and data across the ICS regions here.
