A new partnership between SocialDiabetes and the University of Girona to implement AI-based Digital Therapies for diabetes management.

The collaboration between SocialDiabetes and the University of Girona aims to accelerate the adoption of AI by patients and professionals.

Extending their long-standing partnership, the MiceLab research group at the University of Girona and SocialDiabetes have announced a multi-year collaboration to provide people with diabetes and the professionals who treat them with AI-based predictive and personalization tools. The aim of the collaboration is to implement the algorithms developed and validated in a relevant environment by MiceLab, in the SocialDiabetes digital platform, for distribution among patients and the different agents of the health system.

The patient is the key component of any diabetes management system, including automated insulin delivery systems. Combining advanced control algorithms with up-to-date AI-based algorithms allows us to offer control tools as we have never seen before, reducing the burden of diabetes management, while providing safety and peace of mind to patients.

The first phase of the project aims to provide patients with type 1 diabetes with multi-dose insulin therapy using smart pens with the same benefits as patients on automated insulin pump systems (artificial pancreas). In this way it is intended that they can lead a daily life as close as possible to that of a healthy person, reducing the burden associated with the daily management of blood glucose.

The team, led by Dr. Josep Vehí, director of MiceLab, and Victor Bautista, CTO and Product manager of SocialDiabetes, has received a grant from the Next Generation funds of the European Union through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience plan of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. With which they will be able to start the project before the end of 2022.

We believe that the technology for the management and self-management of chronic diseases must go a step further and make the services offered to patients more sophisticated by applying a higher level of intelligence to the available technology. If so far the market has developed by digitizing records and processes, the time has come to automate decision-making by developing algorithms that make intelligent use of data to provide advice and recommendations in a personalized and understandable way, facilitating the day-to-day life of chronic patients

Maria Jesús Salido CEO of SocialDiabetes.

Dr. Vehí’s team has been researching diabetes technologies since 2004 and is one of the leading groups in the development of the artificial pancreas for glycemic control in type 1 diabetes and the introduction of artificial intelligence in diabetes management in Europe.

The use of algorithms already present in Artificial Pancreas technology, e.g., insulin bolus optimizers, hypoglycemia prevention, or exercise management systems, will allow semi-automation of MDI therapy. This gives rise to a new concept of a cyber-physical system where the patient is the center of the system and, at the same time, the one in charge of executing the control actions, but with the added advantage of not having to bear the psychological burden of daily decision making. The end result of the project will be a new therapy for people with T1D with practically the same advantages of artificial pancreas systems in terms of safety and glycemic control, but with a simpler and cheaper system, and without the inconvenience of always having to carry an insulin pump attached to the body

Dr. Vehí

The integration of the different modules will provide an unprecedented battery of decision support and patient safety tools that will greatly reduce the burden of diabetes management. These results will be converted into new advanced functionalities in the SocialDiabetes system that, together with its already broad functional offering will position SocialDiabetes globally as a strategic partner to health systems and industry partners.

SocialDiabetes is a digital therapy solution, based on mobile technology, (universal) connectivity with medical devices, and data intelligence, with the aim of optimizing care processes, health risk management, treatment personalization, and action protocols. The remote patient management tool allows healthcare professionals to monitor patients’ status in real-time and take actions based on data that enables treatment personalization and management efficiency.

The SD platform has experienced continuous growth since its founding in 2013. Currently, with more than 500,000 downloads worldwide, it is a CE-marked comprehensive diabetes management tool that operates in several countries with industrial partners and public health systems. With the inclusion of the different algorithms described above, the SD platform will be a paradigm shift for MDI users. 

This new version allows for greater patient freedom and quality of life by providing them with the necessary tools to monitor their condition and maximize their control. 

The Modeling Identification and Control Engineering (MiceLab) research group, founded in 2000 by Prof. Josep Vehí, belongs to the Institute of Informatics and Applications (IIiA), a research institute of the University of Girona (UdG), which has about 150 researchers very active in research in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), both basic and industry-oriented, as well as in technology transfer activities. The main objective of the MiceLab group is the incorporation of intelligent systems and biomedical engineering knowledge into health management systems and the development of innovative medical technologies. The main research areas are Digital health, m-health, Artificial pancreas, and Personalized medicine. Development of personalized predictive models using machine learning. Design of advanced control algorithms and decision support systems for personalized treatments and therapies.

The MiceLab group has been researching diabetes technologies since 2004, leading and participating in several European and international national competitive research projects over the last eighteen years.

Since January 1, 2018, the group belongs to the prestigious center of excellence in diabetes CIBERDEM: “Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas*”, being one of the few engineering groups in the center.

*Center for Biomedical Research Network on Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases.