NY Health System to Use Digital Platform to Inform Teenagers of Diabetes Risks

To educate teenagers on diabetes risks, Mount Sinai Health System is collaborating with mPulse Mobile to implement a health program that will be offered to teenagers in East Harlem, aiming to improve population health.

Mount Sinai Health System is an academic medical system in New York City, comprising over 43,000 employees and eight hospitals. mPulse Mobile is a digital health company that offers a conversational artificial intelligence platform combined with health education to drive tailored health engagement.

Recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated that the prevalence of prediabetes is growing among teenagers in America, with the rate of prediabetes ranging from about 20 to 25 percent among teenagers and young adults.

But traditional methods tend not to drive health engagement in younger populations, according to the press release. Thus, mPulse and Mount Sinai sought the help of a community advisory board consisting of young adults who help support their new program, offering advice on content creation, tailoring, and goal planning.

“There is a significant need for diabetes-related education and prevention within the East Harlem youth population, and by working with mPulse Mobile, we now have the ability to initiate sensitive and scaled digital conversations with this target population that gets them meaningfully engaged in managing their health,” said Nita Vangeepuram, MD, pediatrician, clinical researcher, and an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in the press release. “I am confident that we can make a difference in their health outcomes moving forward.”

Recent studies have indicated that diabetes care is rife with health disparities.

A study published in August 2021 explained how Black and Hispanic children experienced a rapid increase in rates of diabetes between 2001 and 2017, indicating disparities that potentially relate to social determinants of health and lower access to healthcare.

However, various organizations have implemented strategies to eliminate disparities and expand diabetes care.

In April, Blue Shield of California announced that it would work with Walgreens to reduce care disparities by launching more Walgreens Health Corner locations. The collaboration aims to improve care coordination for those battling chronic conditions while improving equity, using both in-person and virtual care.

Further, Stanford Children’s Health published a study last year showing that continuous glucose monitoring can help improve outcomes for diabetic kids. In addition, the technology did not negatively impact the care experience for patients or their families.