More than 50,000 people living with diabetes across Scotland are now using an app developed at the University of Dundee to manage their condition.
My Diabetes My Way (MDMW), developed by Drs Scott Cunningham and Debbie Wake at Dundee’s School of Medicine, has the potential to save the health services millions of pounds every year while improving the quality of life of those who use it.
MDMW was launched in 2008 to provide patients with an accessible means of actively managing their routine care. It contains multimedia resources for diabetes education, online learning courses and offers people with diabetes access to their electronic personal health record (ePHR), facilitating personalised advice.
Use of this ePHR and the ability to learn about diabetes alongside a person’s own data have been shown to lead to improvements in diabetes control and management. This helps bring about improvements in quality of life and cost-savings to the health service.
“We are very proud that MDMW continues to help individuals and healthcare systems in multiple ways,” said Dr Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology and Principal Investigator for the MDMW programme. “For the 50,000 users logging in to self-manage their condition, this is potentially life-changing for them.
“Engagement with this tool can result in a delay in complications and a delay in starting more expensive medicine. This is vital at a time when the costs of treating diabetes in an ageing population is growing but, more importantly, it also means a higher quality of life for people living with diabetes.
“The total number of registrants is actually higher than 50,000 and we will continue to work to encourage them, and those who have not yet registered for MDMW, to benefit from this comprehensive app. We know that MDMW is among the most cost-effective interventions available to support diabetes management.”
An analysis of MDMW data found that users of the service were likely to experience an improvement in their quality of life and their diabetes control. It is estimated that every £1 spent on MDMW has resulted in £5 of cost savings through a reduction in heart, kidney, eye and foot disease for patients and a reduction in treatment and medication costs to the NHS.
Rates of diabetes are still growing, with overall prevalence increasing by between 14,000-15,000 people each year in Scotland.
The success of MDMW led to the development of the MyWay Digital Health spinout, which looks to develop the service for use in healthcare systems in NHS England and other countries.