Investment targets diabetes crisis in rural N.L.
The Northpine Foundation and Amp Health recently announced an investment of $250,000 in Amp Health’s innovative approach to combating the diabetes crisis in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
Newfoundland and Labrador face a dire situation, with 35 per cent of its residents battling diabetes or prediabetes. Barriers to care, especially in rural areas, exacerbate the problem. More than 25 per cent of residents lack access to a family doctor, making prevention and management even more challenging. With one of the highest per capita health-care spending rates in the country, the province still grapples with alarming diabetes rates and poor health outcomes.
“In Newfoundland and Labrador, we have a prevailing paradox: high costs to the health-care system, but with results that, unfortunately, don’t match up. This investment signifies our commitment to addressing this pressing issue and improving lives,” said Mark Lane, impact director with Rural Newfoundland and Labrador at the Northpine Foundation, in a news release.
Amp Health will receive support from the Northpine Foundation over the next two years, with a mission to reduce the transition rate from pre-diabetes to type 2 diabetes for individuals living in rural areas of the province through their product Melli, a SMS-based diabetes prevention program drawing from the CDC Diabetes Prevention Protocol and the expertise of Dr. Michael Vallis, a renowned behavioral psychologist at Dalhousie University and part of the Amp Health support team.
“Lack of access to health-care professionals, inability to provide frequent follow-up due to resource limitations and distance to travel to access health care have been barriers that reduce the ability of existing health services to meet the need to support sustained behaviour change (healthy eating, physical activity, medication adherence), the backbone of chronic disease management. The behavioural sciences can be leveraged using technologies developed by Amp Health to reach more people more easily and to provide continuity of support between visits to a health-care provider. Amp Health is positioned to fill a gap in the effective prevention and management of diabetes and obesity.”
The success of this SMS-based diabetes prevention pilot program will allow Amp Health to develop and pilot Minimol, a comprehensive application that offers personalized behaviour change support coupled with real-time health data and machine learning.
Mandy Woodland, CEO at Amp Health, said, “We are excited to receive this investment from the Northpine Foundation for our pilot program in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
This support will allow us to meet individuals where they are in their health journey and have impact on long-term health more quickly. This reflects the importance of long-term investment in preventative health care and can transform the current trajectory of the diabetics epidemic, creating positive impact on individual participants, communities and the entire province.”
The investment signifies a pivotal step towards enhancing health-care outcomes in Newfoundland and Labrador, not only reducing health-care costs but also keeping more individuals healthy and productive, bolstering the provincial economy. The potential lifetime cost savings for the provincial health-care system could be as high as $69,000 per participant, underscoring the profound impact this initiative can have.
Lane added, “When we consider our provincial health-care’s massive costs and middling outcomes, these savings are a critical policy priority. This initiative also aligns perfectly with our goal to improve health-care access in underserved areas in our province.”
Amp Health is actively forging partnerships and seeking investors to expand access to rural and remote areas across the province and eventually around the world. Their vision includes offering the solution at low or no cost to patients, mirroring successful models in other regions.