Evaluation of Mapmydiabetes, the NICE-endorsed diabetes self-management education platform

"Diabetes is a major public health problem with almost 3.7 million people diagnosed in the UK and an estimated 1 million more who are undiagnosed. Obesity is the most significant risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90% of all cases. Good diabetes management has been shown to reduce the risk of complications (blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and amputations). There is also a substantial financial cost to diabetes care, estimated at £14 billion per year in the UK.

All people with diabetes should be offered diabetes self-management education and support around the time they are diagnosed, with annual reinforcement and review. Unfortunately, referral and access to this education and support is highly variable across the UK and annual reinforcement rarely happens. There are many reasons for this, including lack of capacity in the system, but also because many people can't, or don't want to attend classroom-based group sessions, which has until recently been the only way to access diabetes self-management education.

Mapmydiabetes can make a significant difference to people living with diabetes and to the cost and efficiency of delivering this care by providing diabetes self-management education through digital channels. Mapmydiabetes is a web-based support platform that provides unlimited and ongoing access to education, support and self-management tools for people with diabetes, and also connects them to their healthcare provider to support shared clinical decision-making.

The broad adoption of Mapmydiabetes by the NHS is being hindered by lack of a clinical and cost effectiveness evidence base, which prevents the NHS from committing to and commissioning this service. This project aims to develop a data collection and evaluation plan to generate a robust evidence base for Mapmydiabetes that will be acceptable to key stakeholder groups, including NICE, NHS England and Clinical Commissioning Groups. This will enable Mapmydiabetes to be adopted at pace and scale within the NHS to bring real benefits to people living with diabetes as well as reduce the costs of service proviison to the NHS."