November 23, 2020
The Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded Clalit Health* Services $3.4 million. The Helmsley Charitable Trust funds will be used to Evaluate Closed-loop AI Technology at Schneider Children’s Medical Center for People Requiring Insulin Injection Therapy.
Clalit Health Services will conduct the research at its Schneider Children’s Medical Center’s Jesse Z and Sara Lea Shafer Institute of Endocrinology and Diabetes, a national referral center for childhood diabetes in Israel. The research will evaluate people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes undergoing multiple daily injections. The program will include a series of clinical studies aimed at validating a new technology provided by DreaMed Diabetes with the goal to empower people with diabetes to achieve better self-management of their condition and provide personalized real-time insulin dosing recommendations. The protocol aims to improve glycemic control and enhance diabetes treatment satisfaction for people affected by the condition.
Diabetes is a demanding chronic condition that can take a heavy toll on affected individuals as well as the healthcare system. While the number of people with diabetes continues to rise worldwide1, the number of diabetes specialists has stagnated, with rural areas alongside developing countries, in particular, feeling the shortage.2,3 As a result, greater numbers are receiving insulin therapy administered by primary care physicians. Despite recent advances, the majority of people with diabetes are still not reaching optimal and desired levels of glycemic control.
Today, only a small portion of the diabetes population has access to automated insulin delivery systems, which reduces the burden of making correct real-time decisions involving insulin dosing. Most people with diabetes requiring insulin are using injection therapy, with few alternative treatment options available. This lacking state of affairs in diabetes management calls for new strategies to tackle the problem.
In response, a team at Clalit Health Services’ Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, together with leading academic teams in the US and EU, will assess the efficacy of an updated version of DreaMed’s Advisor Platform. The new version enables the sending of optimal insulin treatment recommendations directly to its users (without the need for pre-approval by a healthcare provider), automatically synchronizing new optimized recommendations with real-time dosage advisers.
“For years, people with diabetes using insulin injection therapy have been left behind. Most of the technologies that were developed, have yet to address this large portion of the population.”, said Moshe Phillip, Director of the Jesse Z and Sara Lea Shafer Institute for Endocrinology and Diabetes, National Center for Childhood Diabetes. “With the introduction of the COVID pandemic, and considering our true ability to impact insulin dosage on a daily basis, we owe it to our patients, a solution that can help them self-manage their insulin treatment. I believe that this project will be the first step towards providing the clinical evidence needed to adopt such AI technologies in our routine care.”
References
1 IDF – diabetes atlas – 2017 Atlas. In. www.diabetesatlas.org/resources/2017-atlas.html
2 Vigersky RA, Fish L, Hogan P, et al. The clinical endocrinology workforce: current status and future projections of supply and demand. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2014;99:3112-3121.
3 RW B. The T1D Exchange clinic registry. In: Tamborlane WV BR, Miller KM, DuBose SN, Hall CA, Network TDEC, eds. Vol 97. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2012:4383-4389
*Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel is the only comprehensive, tertiary care hospital of its kind in the region, offering a full range of pediatric disciplines for children aged 0-18 years old. Since its establishment in 1991, Schneider Children’s has revolutionized the practice of pediatric medicine in the country and has been recognized as one of the leading pediatric institutions in the world. Through this open-door policy, where all children irrespective of race, religion, or nationality are treated, Schneider Children’s receives patients from neighboring countries including the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, alongside patients from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
