Having diabetes is not a competition – but curing it could be, with a new competition offering a top prize of $100,000. The Data Design Diabetes Challenge is an innovative new way of incentivising companies to think about using technology to break down the barriers to controlling diabetes. Although this is a competition, it has serious undertones which could have long-lasting effects on the wellness of diabetes sufferers the world over.
The challenge offers this large cash sum to start-up companies that are coming up with revolutionary new ways to cut down on the enormous diabetes epidemic that is threatening the wellbeing of millions of people in the developed world.
These companies could do things like using algorithms to find better meals, or predicting which patients are most at risk from not using their medication properly – all using technology.
Dealing with the diabetes epidemic is considered a top priority, as almost 8.3 percent of the population in the USA alone is suffering from the disease, and the cost to the economy is enormous, with many millions more people now at risk of diabetes, due to their lifestyles and other factors.
The competition is run by drugmaker Sanofi US and has run for several years now, looking to track down the best data-driven solutions to diabetes. They are careful not to source ideas that are simply ‘flash in the pan’ which will not come to anything, but more deeply rooted, well-thought-out ideas that will actually go on to help reduce incidences of diabetes and save lives.
Finalists for this year’s competition include GoCap, a high-tech cap that can be put onto pre-filled insulin pens, that are able to track the time and dosage and then communicate this information to glucometers and cell phones, making the potential for patient analysis enormous, and Connect & Coach, a software application which provides Diabetes Self-Management Education alongside Medical Nutrition Therapy in communities, which can be used in pharmacies and supermarkets.