Roche Diabetes Care Partners with OurPath

Roche Diabetes Care has signed a partnership agreement with OurPath to roll its lifestyle management programme out to consumers across the UK and Ireland. OurPath, the health technology start-up, was founded by two Oxbridge graduates to help people live more healthy lives and prevent or reduce symptoms of type 2 diabetes.

     (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/601092/OurPath_Logo.jpg )

     (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/601093/Roche_logo.jpg )

Until now the OurPath programme has only been available on a small scale through its website and in NHS trials through GP surgeries in London. However, the results are impressive, with previous participants seeing an average weight loss of over 7kg and a 50% reduction in risk of type 2 diabetes.

Under the Accu-Chek brand, Roche Diabetes Care has been a pioneer in the development of blood glucose monitoring systems and a global leader for diabetes management systems and services for over 40 years.

OurPath in partnership with Accu-Chek, will see the programme offered to far more consumers at a much quicker pace, with the aim of putting more than 750,000 people in the UK through the programme over the next five years, which could result in a £525m saving to the NHS^[3].

This partnership in the digital health space, is another example of Roche's move to offer more patient-centered digital health services, having recently acquired diabetes app mySugr, one of the leading mobile diabetes platforms in the market, earlier this year.

The founders of OurPath recognised the huge impact type 2 diabetes has on vast swathes of the population: one in three adults in the UK have pre-diabetes^[4] and may be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if they don't change their lifestyle.

Brett Lewis, General Manager of Roche Diabetes Care UK & Ireland, said: "I'm delighted to announce our new partnership with OurPath, whose innovative programme is already demonstrating some fantastic results. We are looking forward to a successful future together."

Mike Gibbs, President of OurPath, said: "The challenge of the 21st century is behavioural change. The diseases that are affecting us the most and crippling global healthcare economies are the ones caused by our own unhealthy lifestyles. Lifestyle change programmes like OurPath are critical to help improve the nation's health and get people changing their behaviours for the long term."

Roche Diabetes Care will be hiring and training OurPath health coaches, as well as marketing the programme across the country. They will also be looking at ways to increase access to the programme through the NHS, with plans for eventual global rollout.

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1. The Future Healthcare Journal  [ http://futurehospital.rcpjournal.org/content/4/3/173?related-urls=yes&legid=futurehosp;4/3/173&cited-by=yes&legid=futurehosp;4/3/173 ] - reported 8.2% weight loss at 6 months, (7kg based on the raw data).

2. Based on analysis stating 5-7% bodyweight reduction is associated with a 50% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832727/ [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3832727 ].

3. Figures based on the NICE guidelines [https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph53/chapter/4-considerations ] of 3kg of sustained weight loss for life at £1000, as the cost effective base level. Each OurPath patient's lifetime cost is approximately £300 for the NHS (or consumer). Taking the £700 differential multiplied by the number of people going through the programme by 2020 (750k), equals the £525m saving.

4. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/6/e005002 - population-based, cross- sectional study (uses the US definition of pre-diabetes (HbA1c of 5.7-6.4%)). Using Public Health England's UK definition (6.0-6.4%) produces levels of 5 million people [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/five-million-people-at-high-risk-of-type-2-diabetes ].