Diabetes is a growing global epidemic with  624 million  people expecte to suffer from this metabolic disease by 2040. According to the mHealth App  Economic 2017 study, 68% of mobile health app developers and publishers believe that diabetes continues to be the therapy field with the best market potential for digital health solutions within the near future and 61% see Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the most disruptive technology shaping the digital health sector. Where are we right now? Can today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) play a key role in fully assisting people who suffer from diabetes and who are the global market players to watch out for in the AI diabetes niche?y 
We bring you a study by Stela Nikolova  of Research2Guidance
Fedbruary 24 2018: Today, the hype around Artificial Intelligence is substantial. According to mHealth Economics study, 61% of mobile health app developers believe AI has the most potential to disrupt and transform the digital health sector in the near future.

Being a form of intelligent programming, AI can be very valuable when unthinkable amount of data exists that needs to be analyzed and assessed. It can be used for identifying relevant insights among millions of data and for diagnostic support, as well as to automate certain tasks, thereby it saves time and improves efficiency. And in its nutshell, these are examples of machine learning, an application of AI.
Because of its data driven nature and its ability to process and interpret enormous amount of data into simple actionable guidance, AI is also believed to have a huge potential when it comes to improving treatment of diabetes. There are still untapped diabetes insights, in addition to millions of personal patients’ health records that need to be further processed, analyzed and learnt from to create diabetes knowledge base for patients, researchers, doctors and clinicians. AI can help with a case-based reasoning for insulin dosing, for example, searching and finding the best solution based on vast data available and lessons learned from similar cases in the past and matching it with specific patient records. Therefore, for a unique patient treatment with tailored diabetes management recommendations, the patient’s regular reporting is crucial.
At present, digital coaching tools powered by Artificial Intelligence systems allow diabetic patients to self-manage their own condition, decrease the feeling of helplessness by viewing in real time their data and taking prompt actions to feel better, thus having some kind of control over their present state. The devices are also able to encourage timely interventions from the GP, a consultant and/or family, friends and to prevent any further complications with, for example, a real-time remote monitoring connected device.
Currently, because of AI’s fixed programmed rules and because of the complexity of diabetes, there is still limited success in truly offering a personalized actionable recommendation based only on AI insights. If you want to know more about the diabetes mHealth app market and how to be successful at providing app-based/enhanced diabetes coaching, check out our blog “4 Must-Haves to Become a Successful Digital Diabetes Care Company“.
As a therapy field with the best market potential and being one of the most expensive global diseases, diabetes attracts top healthcare players, as well as start-ups, who use innovative technologies and AI to tackle daily challenges faced by people with diabetes with the end goal to improve their condition, decrease the stress and make their lives easier and more enjoyable.
Let’s look at 7 market players who offer different diabetes solutions powered by AI.
Bigfoot Biomedical – harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to develop systems designed to automatically and continuously optimize insulin delivery for people living with insulin-requiring diabetes.
DIABNEXT – the first Diabetes A.I. that enables unique personalized metric analysis and decision-making tools for doctors and patients to better manage pre-diabetes and diabetes.
DreaMed Diabetes – dedicated to empower insulin-dependent patients and their doctors with innovative and patient-centric decision support technology. The first company in the world to receive a CE Mark approval for its artificial pancreas system technology.
Hedia – a personal diabetes-assistant, based on artificial intelligence. It picks up patterns and habits of the individual diabetic and uses it for insulin recommendations giving the person with diabetes a better insulin-treatment.
MedicSen – predictive modules help diabetes patients make decisions knowing potential risks in advance. According to the team their learning algorithm predicts future glucose values up to 1 hour in advance with less than 10 glucose units as error. Their chat-bot interface can talk through voice or written questions and answers, easing treatment adherence.
TypeZero – combines next-generation data science techniques, proven metabolic models, and modern engineering practices to develop customized analytics tools and blood glucose control solutions to help people with diabetes improve their health and lives.
xbird – their solution monitors personal environmental and behavioral digital biomarkers by applying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to millions of data points with the final outcome creating actionable insights for both doctors and patients. Note: All the companies are presented in an alphabetic order
The treatment of diabetes is largely dependent on the type of diabetes, and its severity. As technology becomes more advanced, the breakthroughs in AI will continue and it will further disrupt the diabetes mobile solutions and healthcare sector. The leading companies keep partnering and combining science and innovative technology / AI to come closer to ultimate diabetes management solution. For example, a collaboration between Medtronic and IBM’s Watson resulted in the first ‘cognitive app’, Sugar.IQ.