Reverses Diabetes India
This project is developing a personalised program to support diabetes type 2 patients in changing their lifestyle to reverse their diabetic condition. The aim is to offer a scalable solution by showing the effectiveness of a proven Dutch programme in the Indian context and the potential of digital technology. The Joep Lange Institute, Voeding Leeft, the Amsterdam Health and Technology Institute and the VU University of Amsterdam have teamed up with two reputable health organisations in India: Piramal Swasthya and the Eternal Heart Centre. Voeding Leeft developed the successful lifestyle program ‘Reverse Diabetes 2’ which will be adapted for the Indian context.
In the Netherlands, the programme has shown spectacular results: 92% of diabetes type 2 participants have been reversed wholly or partially after participation in the program for 12 months. With 70 million diabetes type 2 patients currently living in India – 50% of all patients worldwide – it is important to develop an effective and scalable program in this new context. Moreover, numbers are increasing, with the estimate to reach 120 million patients by 2025 in India.
The project will be rolled out in different regions in India, initially with live participant groups. This phase will be used to answer questions on the effectiveness of the program in this new context. A second phase will look more into the digitalisation of the the programme, by shifting the live programme to an online platform, thus making the programme scalable by using mobile technology.
Results will be analysed to understand patient engagement and adherence to the programme, to test if the programme is effective in reversing diabetes, and to test if the data collected on biomedical parameters and daily food intake can be used by companies and institutes who want to develop new diabetes treatment methods and devices in a cost effective and scalable way.
