Sensyne's gestational diabetes AI app launches on the NHS

Artificial intelligence company Sensyne Health has launched a new app that helps women manage gestational diabetes, and five NHS hospitals have already signed up.

GDm-Health is a tool enabling remote management of gestational diabetes, reducing the need for expectant mothers to attend additional medical appointments and reducing pressure on midwives and NHS services.

The app, an approved device that complies with requirements in the European Medical Directive, allows patients to connect a blood glucose meter to their smartphone so they can monitor and securely submit real-time via an app.

Doctors can then review the results outside their usual antenatal appointments.

This frees up clinicians’ time to focus on the woman’s care needs rather than collecting and recording data, meaning they are able to prioritise care to women most at need.

Five NHS Trusts have signed contracts to use GDm-Health and the system will be available to their patients and midwives, following a two-year clinical evaluation in the NHS by over 2,000 women in partnership with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Berkshire NHS  Foundation Trust.

Three additional NHS Trusts will be implementing GDm-Health in the coming weeks, including Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Gestational diabetes is a pregnancy-related disease that is increasing in prevalence, driven by demographic and lifestyle changes.

In the UK, the rise is predicted to reach a prevalence of over 16%, from a baseline of around 4% in 2008 and is a condition that without tight blood glucose control can lead to adverse maternal and foetal outcomes.

Results published in March 2018 from a randomised controlled trial for GDm-Health (203 participants), demonstrated its value to both women and the NHS including: statistically significant improvement in patient satisfaction, adherence to glucose monitoring, a reduction in caesarean sections, a trend towards reduction in pre-term births and potential for cost-savings to the NHS through improved patient outcomes.

Dr Lucy Mackillop, consultant obstetric physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I am delighted that GDm-Health has made the transition to a commercial product and is available for implementation across the NHS. This is as a result of an enormous amount of work by the clinical and academic teams at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University of Oxford and by Sensyne Health to have taken our prototype and transformed it into a sustainable scalable product.”

GDm-Health is one of a number of data-driven health technology applications under development by Sensyne Health in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Anonymised data from these systems can be made available for analysis by the company, using its AI capabilities for medical research and to improve patient care.

GDm-Health is listed on the NHS Apps Library and has been the subject of a NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) Medtech innovation briefing [MIB131].