PRESS RELEASE

Prevent is an online group program based on the landmark DPP clinical trial that showed diabetes can be prevented through lifestyle changes

SAN FRANCISCO, December 11, 2012 — Omada Health, a pioneer in the field of digital health, today launched Prevent, the first-ever online diabetes prevention program for the general public. This launch comes at a critical time, as U.S. diabetes rates are skyrocketing and the CDC is spending enormous resources to curb this “national epidemic” by rolling out diabetes prevention programs in community centers across the country. One in three American adults have prediabetes (the clinical precursor to type 2 diabetes), and the majority will develop prediabetes or diabetes by 2020. However, a landmark NIH-sponsored study called the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) showed that a comprehensive behavioral weight loss program can help people prevent diabetes, and do so even more effectively than medication.

Complementing the CDC’s on-the-ground diabetes prevention efforts is Omada Health, a Silicon Valley startup conceived at design and innovation firm, IDEO, and incubated at startup accelerator, Rock Health. The Omada team is an interdisciplinary group of technologists, entrepreneurs and clinicians from Google, Amazon, IDEO, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia who are passionate about creating accessible technology to prevent disease. Their flagship product, Prevent, is a groundbreaking online version of the DPP for the general public.

“The Diabetes Prevention Program clinical trial of 2002 was extremely successful in showing that diabetes can, in fact, be prevented,” said Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy. “If that trial had been a pill, it probably would have become a billion-dollar drug and the gold standard in care. But the DPP was a behavior change program — challenging and expensive to roll out. We created the Prevent program to ensure that diabetes prevention is available online to as many people as possible.”

Read more...