From Prediction to Prevention: How AI Technology is Shaping Diabetes Care

20 Nov, 2024

AI technology is revolutionizing the way we operate in nearly every field, and diabetes care is no exception. Globally, over 500 million people are affected by diabetes, with nearly 50% of cases going undiagnosed. The consequences of untreated diabetes include serious health complications, reduced quality of life, and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

But what if we could harness technology to predict, prevent, detect, and manage diabetes more effectively? Advances in AI are making this vision a reality, empowering insurers, healthcare providers, and wellness companies to improve outcomes at every stage of the diabetes journey.

Here’s how AI technology, including Binah.ai’s innovative solutions, is transforming diabetes prevention and care.

Predict: Detecting Diabetes Risk Early

One of the most transformative applications of AI for diabetes is its ability to predict who is at risk of developing the disease. With the proliferation of health data, individuals and organizations can leverage predictive insights to preempt the disease rather than react to it. By analyzing historical health data and physiological patterns, AI helps identify early warning signs and enable targeted interventions before the disease develops.

Diabetes Risk Detection with Binah.ai

Binah.ai empowers organizations with non-invasive, video-based health monitoring that detects diabetes risks through a simple selfie video using a smartphone camera. The diabetes risk is calculated based on indicators measured by Binah.ai, primarily HbA1c.

Key benefits include:

Early Risk Assessment: In addition to detecting diabetes risk, users can measure diabetes-related indicators like blood pressure, ASCVD (atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) risk, stress levels, and more.
Targeted Interventions: Identify high-risk individuals and enable public-health screenings to prevent diabetes before it starts.
Cost Savings: Reduce long-term healthcare costs through timely action.

With Binah.ai, insurers and wellness companies can turn early detection into a competitive advantage while improving public health.

Prevent: Empowering Lasting Lifestyle Changes

Most people develop type 2 diabetes after a stage of prediabetes, where blood sugar levels are elevated but not yet high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. Approximately 98 million adults in the U.S. have prediabetes, but because there are usually no warning signs of prediabetes, about 81% of them are unaware of it.

But prediabetes is reversible with proven lifestyle changes, such as healthier eating, increased physical activity, and even losing a small amount of weight. AI tools are making it easier for people to adopt these behaviors and make lasting lifestyle changes. For instance:

Omada Health is a digital program that offers personalized coaching, dietary activity tracking, and group support, helping people achieve significant weight loss to reduce diabetes risk. A study showed that participants in the Omada program achieved an average weight loss of 4.7% in one year, which is significant in reducing diabetes risk.

Noom combines behavior change techniques with digital tools like food tracking and coaching to offer guidance and advanced insights. It uses AI to analyze user data, such as meal logging, weigh-ins, and physical activity, to predict progress and provide personalized feedback. NOOM also integrates AI technology to provide users with body composition (BMI) insights directly through their smartphones. The tool allows users to record a short, 10-second video and results are displayed as a personalized 3D body avatar and a detailed health report.

Enhancing Prevention with Binah.ai

Binah.ai’s smartphone-based health monitoring complements and elevates programs like Omada and Noom with:

Reduced Device Dependence: Programs like Omada send members a welcome kit with a range of devices, including a blood pressure monitor and blood glucose monitor. With Binah.ai, users can skip these devices and simply measure blood pressure and HbA1c levels using their smartphone cameras.
Comprehensive Health Measurement: With Binah.ai’s technology, wellness programs can enable users to measure a wide range of health indicators—such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, stress levels, and a wellness score. This data can help motivate users with measurable progress, and keep them engaged over time.
Enhanced Personalization: By combining Binah.ai’s health monitoring with AI health coaches and tools, wellness programs can create tailored nutritional plans and provide real-time, actionable insights based on real-time data to help users achieve their goals.
Upcoming Features: Binah.ai’s upcoming capabilities include smartphone-based fasting glucose measurements and continuous glucose monitoring using a smart ring, further minimizing the need for multiple tools.

Identify: Closing Gaps in Diabetes Screening

Nearly half of all diabetes cases remain undiagnosed, often due to a lack of regular screenings, high screening costs, or the invasive nature of traditional blood tests. Additionally, the age at which individuals develop prediabetes and diabetes continues to decline, fueled by unhealthy eating habits and reduced physical activity. Despite this trend, many young people view diabetes as an “older person’s disease” and neglect routine screenings, further exacerbating the issue. AI is helping close this gap by enabling faster, more accessible diagnostic methods.

Screening for Diabetes with Binah.ai

Binah.ai’s groundbreaking bloodless blood tests enable users to measure hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) non-invasively through a simple 35-second selfie video. These indicators, combined with Binah.ai’s diabetes risk assessments can help identify diabetes. This scalable technology can be deployed in:

Health kiosks for public spaces
Workplace wellness programs and apps
Telemedicine platforms to improve equity in healthcare

Making diabetes screenings accessible to more people and reducing diagnostic delays, this approach not only reduces diagnostic delays but also brings screenings to underserved populations, improving equity in healthcare.

Manage: Enhancing Diabetes Treatment and Patient Self-Management

For those already living with diabetes, AI-driven tools are optimizing treatment plans, improving adherence, and enabling real-time health monitoring. For example:

GluFormer by NVIDIA can predict a person’s future glucose levels based on past glucose monitoring data. Gluformer can also predict how a person’s glucose levels will respond to specific foods and dietary changes, enabling precision nutrition.

DreaMed Diabetes’ Advisor Pro, another new tool, uses AI to provide insulin dose recommendations, replicating the expertise of diabetes specialists.

Improving Diabetes Management with Binah.ai

Frequent monitoring of key indicators like HbA1c, heart rate variability, and blood pressure is essential for effective diabetes management. Binah.ai’s wearable-based checks enable continuous monitoring of a wide range of health indicators using the Polar Verity Sense™ optical heart rate sensor, empowering patients to manage their condition proactively.

By integrating this data into diabetes management platforms and management tools like GluFormer and DreaMed, insurers and healthcare providers can:

Make tools smarter with continuous streams of a comprehensive range of health data
Enhance care coordination
Deliver more personalized treatment plans

AI Technology for Diabetes: Why It Matters

For insurance, healthcare, and wellness companies, adopting AI technology for diabetes care isn’t just about innovation—it’s about improving lives while reducing costs. Here’s why it matters:

Proactive Risk Management: Early detection and prevention reduce claims and treatment costs.
Personalized Engagement: Real-time health insights enhance user experiences and encourage healthier behaviors.
Scalable Solutions: Non-invasive technologies like Binah.ai enable widespread adoption, even in remote or resource-limited settings.
Improved Outcomes: Better monitoring and management lead to fewer complications, lower healthcare costs, and happier members or patients.

The Role of Binah.ai in Revolutionizing Diabetes Care

Binah.ai stands out in the AI landscape with its ability to provide both video-based spot checks and wearable-based continuous monitoring using non-invasive methods. By offering a suite of indicators like HbA1c, blood pressure, sympathetic stress, and ASCVD risk, Binah.ai equips insurers, healthcare providers, and wellness companies with the tools needed to tackle diabetes at every stage—from prediction and prevention to management.

Whether through integrating health kiosks in public spaces, embedding solutions in employer wellness programs or apps, or enhancing telehealth platforms, Binah.ai’s technology ensures accessibility and scalability. By partnering with Binah.ai, organizations can transform diabetes care while driving efficiency and cost savings.