Digital Health Solution May Improve Diabetes Patient Management

Novo Nordisk recently announced a novel partnership with Glooko to develop creative digital health solutions for patients with diabetes to improve disease management.

This collaboration will join Novo Nordisk’s extensive knowledge of diabetes with Glooko’s digital platform and data analytics skills, the company stated in a press release.

Novo Nordisk currently has a substantial diabetes portfolio, which contains 7 different drugs, including a number of insulins to control type 2 diabetes.

Novo Nordisk’s

Tresiba

(insulin degludec injection), a long-acting basal insulin injection originally approved in 2015, was recently granted an expanded indication to treat children and adolescents with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This is the only basal insulin approved to treat patients in this age range.

This new joint venture will build on Glooko’s existing mobile and web platforms to develop a solution that will offer patients important features, such as blood glucose management and treatment adherence measures.

The partnership additionally aims to help health care professionals manage patients, and includes the option for data reporting that may also improve patient outcomes in the long-term.

Integrating these new options with the Digital Health Platform, developed with IBM Watson Health, Novo Nordisk hopes to gather valuable insights into the management of diabetes and treatment outcomes, according to the press release.

"We are excited to partner with Glooko and to take another step towards delivering digital health offerings that help people with diabetes to improve their blood glucose control” said Christian Kanstrup, senior vice president, Strategy, Access & Marketing at Novo Nordisk. “Working in partnerships will furthermore enhance our ability to demonstrate the real-world value of our portfolio of diabetes treatments."

Glooko is a population health platform for diabetes management, and allows patients to track and manage their condition via mobile, web, and cloud technology, Novo Nordisk reported in a press release.

Their mobile health app also allows patients to synch their data from a majority of popular diabetes- and exercise-related devices, such as blood glucose monitors. This application provides remote access to health care teams to support patients with diabetes and improve their experiences and outcomes, according to the release. This solution may also lower costs by preventing medication nonadherence and associated health care costs, such as hospitalizations.

"Glooko's partnership with Novo Nordisk aims to empower tens of millions of patients with digital tools to make diabetes management easier,” said Rick Altinger, CEO of Glooko. "We look forward to delivering jointly-branded capabilities that will enhance the collaboration between patient and health care professionals and enable us to provide joint offerings to people living with diabetes around the world."