Diabetes Epidemic
Two ideas:
1) Universal food labeling symbol for restaurant menus 'low sugar' or 'diabetic'
2) Disease staging for diabetes
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Eccles Street
Project City
Dublin
Project Province/State
Dublin
Project Postal/Zip Code
Dublin 7
Project Country
Ireland
Your idea
Year organization founded:
0
Year initiative began:
2009
Service/activity focus:
Nutrition and exercise
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
YouTube Upload
Project URL
Name Your Project
Diabetes Epidemic
Describe Your Idea
Two ideas:
1) Universal food labeling symbol for restaurant menus 'low sugar' or 'diabetic'
2) Disease staging for diabetes
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Two ideas:
1) Universal food labeling symbol for restaurant menus 'low sugar' or 'diabetic'
2) Disease staging for diabetes
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
Diabetes provides little feedback from poor choices, the consequences are slow to emerge and come into view infrequently. Individuals also generally lack understanding of the serious nature of the disease and fail to translate diabetes effectively into their everyday lives.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
No
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Greater transparency regarding lifestyle choices associated with diabetes.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
For non-diabetic sufferers food labeling can nudges people to consider a healthier menu option.
Both proposals are non-intrusive features with little or no cost.
Transparency of the true nature of the disease is enhanced with disease staging.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
For disease staging, diabetes will require renaming into categories. This may involve policy intervention.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
Far reaching potential. In 1985 it was estimated that diabetes affected 30 million people worldwide. By 2000 this had increased to 177 million and is expected to top 370 million by 2030 (Wild et al., 2007). Both diabetic, pre-diabetic and overweight can benefit, alongside those who prefer to opt for a healthier meal option.
The use of disease staging is a nudge towards better comprehension of the progressive and seriousness nature of the disease to the novice.
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
1) What to eat when faced with a menu in a restaurant
2) What to do when diagnosed with diabetes (see attachment)
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
People make better choices when given transparent information.Humans predictably err and are influenced by the status quo and by the way things are framed. People take shortcuts and make mistakes when making decisions. Biased behaviour and self-control problems are an underlying concern in management of diabetes. There often exists a lack of understanding concerning the severity of the disease, as a result, a poor understanding of the consequences of mismanaging personal regimes
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
No known costs at present identified
Financing source
Annual budget
At this stage the nudges proposed are concepts and not implemented.
Annual revenue generated
Long-term economic benefit to the healthcare system as a whole and the individual.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
N/A
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
To make the health nudge public, a TV commercial is proposed to get people thinking and talking about diabetes. This would provide an opportunity to highlight the seriousness using a vivid and memorable medium in a language the novice would understand. TV advertising is far reaching and captures a wide audience including children and adolescents. Given the prevalence of diabetes the potential benefit of running an advertisement would be likely a future cost saving.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
If worldwide healthcare widely recognized diabetes in stages no further growth would be necessary. Diabetes would be 're-branded' into a more transparent progressive and serious disease. Likewise cancer and hypertension are described in this way.
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
Studying an MBA and behavioural economics module, a family member and friends have diabetes.
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
N Reade
At what stage is this initiative?
Innovative idea .
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
International healthcare (or even one country at a time) to recognize the benefit of changing diabetes into named stages, and clear communication to healthcare providers of the change.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
Nudge (2009), economics studies, low cost high impact health initiatives
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| DIABETES EPIDEMIC_NUDGE_Nina_Reade_Ireland.doc | 135 KB |
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Comments
Disease staging
It is proposed that diabetes is described and categorised in ‘disease stages’, for example, Stage one (Metabolic X), Stage two (insulin resistant) and Stage three (failure to produce insulin). Seemingly insignificant details (like names) can have a major impact on people’s perception and behaviour. The use of disease staging is a nudge towards better comprehension of the progressive and seriousness nature of the disease to the novice. Likewise other well-recognised chronic fatal diseases such as cancer and hypertension are described in stages. Diabetes is not often associated with fatality. For the healthcare provider disease staging can be utilised to measure severity of illness and its impact on hospital costs. It would also be well suited for cost-effectiveness research, because discharge based systems do not require medical chart review or clinical judgement as part of the rating methodology. When catagorised in stages the individual is nudged to take corrective steps relevant to the specific stage, the catagorised information may also be sought more easily, the amount of accessible information on diabetes can be overwhelming to the individual. Health providers would also supply targeted health promotion material that encourages goal setting behaviour to prevent the disease progressing to the next stag
Diabetes places a huge burden on global healthcare resources due in large part to the many associated complications. Diabetes:
• Accounts for more than 50% of all lower limb amputations performed in the U.S each year and it is estimated that every 30 seconds someone in the world receives a lower limb amputation due to diabetes
• Leads to neuropathy in nearly 50% of sufferers after 25 years.
• Causes an increased risk of influenza, pneumonia and UTIs due to an altered immune system.
• Causes retinopathy and glaucoma and is the leading cause of blindness in people of working age (Pasquale, 2006)
• Increased risk of developing dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease or neurovascular problems.
• Increased risk of cardiovascular problems including artherosclerosis and CVA (Jeerakathil, 2007)
• Represents the number one cause for admission to dialysis and kidney transplant programmes
• Doubles the risk for depression (Carnethon, 2007)
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