Roche @Hack Zurich 2020: Diabetes Care Challenge

#wecanhelp500milliondiabetics

Accu-Chek SugarView is a unique solution that allows diabetics in emerging countries to have access to a basic diabetes management tool. Your Challenge is to look for proven motivational and gamification elements that would help increase the solution’s adherence.

We aim to drive testing rates and lifestyle change through gamification techniques by leveraging playful engagement with the following three goals:

• Increased solution adoption

• Improved engagement capabilities

• Long-term testing adherence & sustainable lifestyle change

We call upon you to develop solutions that are specific to the diabetes context, provide actionable insights and measurably impact Accu-Chek SugarView uptake and adherence. The result shall be highly effective solutions that

1. are tailored towards SugarView’s target demographic and its challenges, while

2. finding innovative ways to parry the technological restrictions facing SugarView development in target markets

Please keep in mind that Accu-Chek SugarView is an evidence-based solution. As such, gamification techniques employed in your solution should be validated or validatable regarding their effectiveness.

Your solution will be made available open-source.

The diabetes epidemic

Diabetes is where blood glucose (or sugar) levels run too high. Diabetes currently affects 425 million adults worldwide and is expected to increase to 649 million by 2045.

There are a few different types of diabetes but the three most common are:

• Type 1 diabetes occurs when an individual's immune system destroys the cells in the pancreas that create insulin. It is currently unknown what exactly causes it. As a result, the body makes very little or no insulin of its own and people with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily.

• Type 2 diabetes represents around 90% of people with diabetes. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not make enough insulin, or the body cannot properly use the insulin it does create. Eventually, the pancreas may stop producing insulin altogether. It is often associated with being overweight or obese, however, that is not always the case. Type 2 diabetes can develop slowly and the signs may not be obvious.

Diabetes is a common threat that does not respect borders or social class. No country is immune from diabetes and the epidemic is expected to continue. The burden of diabetes drains national healthcare budgets, reduces productivity, slows economic growth, causes catastrophic expenditure for vulnerable households and overwhelms healthcare systems. Diabetes is one of the largest global health emergencies of the 21st century.

Diabetes is among the top 10 causes of death globally.

In emerging markets, patients are often disproportionately affected by the burden of the disease. Most diabetics in low-income countries have access to a healthcare specialist during less than five hours per year and thus face difficult therapy decisions alone on a daily basis. If diabetes is not properly managed, glucose-level-related exacerbations may endanger the lives of patients and accelerate the development of comorbidities. It is thus vital that diabetics receive potentially life-saving guidance in getting their daily glucose-levels under control.

Accu-Chek SugarView is able to provide patients with insights into their blood-glucose levels without the need for a blood-glucose meter device. The app thus enables diabetes management for populations in emerging markets who previously had no access to medical devices or were lacking the economic means to acquire them.

Based on the glucose-testing results displayed in SugarView, patients are recommended adjustments to nutrition and exercise that help regulate glucose-levels in an easy and affordable manner.

How the app works

The different steps from a user's perspective:

What are the benefits

• Accu-Chek SugarView is affordable, as no blood-glucose meter device is required

• Provides reliable results to patients without regular access to specialists

• Helps patients maintain their glucose levels in a healthy range, thus avoiding disease exacerbation and slowing disease progression

• Provides diabetics with recommendations to adopt a healthier lifestyle

Who is the target group

Non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetics and pre-diabetics are the key target group of Accu-Chek SugarView. Given the low-cost nature of the app, target populations that benefit most from the solution are found primarily in emerging markets. Further, Accu-Chek SugarView may be provided to displaced populations currently living in refugee camps.

Most prevalent patient demographics in the target markets demonstrate

• Ages of 40-65 years

• Low to medium-low incomes

• Varying literacy levels

• Diverse cultural backgrounds

• Limited (health) education and low awareness of healthy diet and lifestyle choices

• Limited (or no) access to medical services and supplies

• Limited (or no) management of diabetes

• Limited technology availability (low-tech smartphones, unreliable internet connection, only low data consumption affordable, etc.)

Additional information

Download the Accu-Chek SugarView bochure here or visit the website here.

Additional resources at the Hack

• the app on test phones as well as testing material (only at the

• detailed customer journeys, pain points, needs

• a list of smartphones compatible with Accu-Chek SugarView

• KPIs on how user engagement is measured

The app is available in the in the Google Play Store or as beta version in the Philippines, Nigeria, Mexico, Pakistan, India

Gamification

Data on Gamification and Game-based Learning

• http://nuriasamper.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/gamification_model_canvas_poster.pdf

• https://financesonline.com/gamification-statistics/

• https://www.gamified.uk/gamification-framework/

• https://gamificationplus.uk/gamification-project-design-framework/

• https://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamificationframework/#.VrEda8zHdc8.pinterest

Gamification and healthcare

• https://innovatemedtec.com/digital-health/gamification

• https://belitsoft.com/custom-application-development-services/healthcaresoftware-development/gamification-in-healthcare-just-for-fun-or-has-real-value

• https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-gamification-health.html

• https://hbr.org/2019/05/improving-health-care-by-gamifying-it

Gamification examples

• https://potion.social/en/blog/10-amazingly-successful-examples-of-gamification/

• https://medicalfuturist.com/top-examples-of-gamification-in-healthcare/

• https://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/top-ten-gamification-healthcaregames/

Study on Gamification

• http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:929548/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Diabetes Data

• https://data.worldbank.org/

• https://open.fda.gov/

• https://opendata.swiss/en/

• https://datasetsearch.research.google.com/

• https://data.gov.uk/

• https://catalog.data.gov/dataset

• https://www.mortality.org/

• https://www.kaggle.com/datasets

• https://www.springboard.com/blog/free-public-data-sets-data-science-project/

• https://data.world/datasets/diabetes

• https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/diabetes

• https://azure.microsoft.com/de-de/services/open-datasets/catalog/sample-diabetes/

• https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/diabetes

• https://datahub.io/machine-learning/diabetes

• https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset?q=diabetes

• https://www.kaggle.com/tags/diabetes