While 415 million people suffer from diabetes today, this number is set to rise to 642 million by 2040. As one of the top five mortality causes of 2030, diabetes is indeed a serious global healthcare issue. While we wait for regenerative medicine to provide us with lab-grown pancreases to replace diseased ones and permanently treat diabetes, patients unfortunately will have to continue searching for better tools to manage their disease. The good news is that several approaches have already been undertaken to develop such tools to help them do so. Here are the top five ways that Frost & Sullivan’s transformational health program analysts predict diabetes management will change in the future. Mandatory Screening Current global statistics on diabetes diagnosis are grim–1 in 2 diabetics remains undiagnosed. A primary challenge to overcome this issue lies in the gold standard for diagnosis–fasting and random blood glucose levels. However, this is set to change with the arrival of non-invasive methods to predict diabetes risks. The Scout DS system by Miraculins is one such device. Using visible light to assess skin diabetes biomarkers (like the Advanced Glycation End-Products) on the forearm, the system throws out a diabetes score in 90 seconds. If the score is high, the patient is referred to a specialist for additional tests and consultation. The non-invasive, quick, no-fasting, no-bloodwork system means you could be getting screened for diabetes during your next annual physical checkup at your general physician’s office. Nutrigenomic Profiling Every individual is different when it comes to metabolic rates, exercise capabilities, tendencies to put on weight or stay lean, inclination to eating sweets, predisposition to diabetes and so on, courtesy of DNA. But now, we have the ability to sequence our DNA and have access to what is known as the individual nutrigenomic profile. The modern science of nutrigenomics combines nutrition and genetics, enables individuals to know how food constituents interact with their genes at molecular levels, and contributes to the disease. This knowledge can help diabetes prevention, or assist diabetics in better managing their disease. Don’t be surprised to see a diabetic person armed with a food scanner (like TellSpec or DietSensor) assessing his restaurant dish and dessert against his nutrigenomic profile. Non-Invasive Monitoring The “holy grail” of diabetes monitoring is non-invasive glucose monitoring that can end pricking fingers for testing several times a day. There are several approaches being developed; broadly, these could be categorized based on where monitoring occurs–eyes (tear drop), fingertip, earlobe and saliva. Apart from big names like Google and Novartis involved in making such monitoring products a reality, there are also smaller players like Medella Health, LighTouch Medical and Quick LLC. Approaches include contact lenses, passing light (visible, infrared or other) through the skin to detect glucose and even salivary assessments. So the next time you are talking to a diabetic person and their contact lens turns a bright color (an indicator for hypoglycemia), get them a chocolate pronto. They will thank you! Background Therapy Of course, a potential “cure” for diabetes is replacing pancreatic β cells with stem cell-derived, lab-grown cells. But the current focus of the industry is the artificial pancreas–although we have Medtronic’s MiniMed 670G as the first of this category, we are likely to see many more advances in this area. Competitors like BigFoot Biomedical, Dexcom and Animas Corporation are also developing similar systems. What these essentially mean is freedom from daily monitoring glucose levels, guesstimating appropriate insulin dosages and injecting them. Another advance that will change the field is being developed by Sensulin and other major pharma companies like Eli Lilly–glucose-responsive, once-a-day insulin that could potentially replace basal and prandial insulin. While this insulin still would be taken once a day through the same insulin pens or other delivery devices, the release of insulin in the body would be controlled by blood glucose levels alone, controlling these levels far better than regular insulin delivery. Overall, diabetics would now be able to live worry-free–either injecting insulin only once a day, or simply letting the artificial pancreas system take over completely, improving the overall quality of life. Your diabetic friend might just stop carrying her glucometer, test strips, lancets, insulin pen and chocolates (or maybe not chocolates). Analytics And Artificial Intelligence A future diabetic person will have their genomic information incorporated in to their diabetes management regimen. Big Data analytics will play a very important role in informing the patient (not the caregiver!) what they should eat, how much they should exercise and how to manage the disease–in real time. An artificially intelligent interface will “communicate” with the user. For example, the a distant-future system might tell the patient (based on her past history, genetic predisposition and today’s diet and activity levels): “If you have that particular dessert now, it will cause your glucose levels to shoot up, necessitating immediately performing activities like jogging to burn approximately 150 calories or an insulin injection of 0.5 units. Please select your choice–jogging or automatic insulin delivery” (numbers are hypothetical). Does this mean now is the best time for diabetics? We are definitely along the way to finding a cure for this disease, but until then, advances in technology will surely make the life of a diabetic person much easier. Source
