Sidekick and SOMPO Digital Lab to Perform PoC With Diabetes Patients

a highway at night with the japanese flag hanging in the street

April 8, 2020

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Nordic digital therapeutics company SidekickHealth and Silicon Valley-based SOMPO Digital Lab have agreed to perform a proof-of-concept (PoC) with patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes.

SOMPO Digital Lab is the innovation group of Tokyo-based insurance and healthcare conglomerate Sompo Holdings. Sidekick specializes in the creation of gamified digital therapeutic (DTx) solutions and programs, transforming chronic disease management across multiple therapeutic areas in alliance with key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

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The PoC will focus primarily on testing the feasibility of Sidekick’s solution and its ability to enable basic health outcomes such as lower glucose levels, weight loss, increased physical activity, improved sleep quality and emotional well being. The PoC will be performed in partnership with healthcare institutions in the Nordics.

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Lifestyle choices continue to contribute to a sharp rise in the prevalence of conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is tremendous room for improvement when it comes to preventing complications like strokes and heart attacks by impacting lifestyle factors, and Sidekick’s gamified platform is proven to improve patient outcomes and encourage patients to make the right choices, driven by industry leading engagement and retention rates, Sidekick’s Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sam Oddsson said.

*Dr. Sam Oddsson, Sidekick’s chief medial officer and co-founder.*

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Sompo’s mission is to provide security, health and wellbeing to our customers through every life stage,” said Joseph Schmidt, vice president of business development at SOMPO Digital Lab. “We believe Sidekick and its promise to improve health, fitness and treatment adherence through clinically validated, gamified therapeutics will help us deliver on our mission.

Over ten million people in Japan are believed to suffer from diabetes, according to the most recent estimates of the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare – an increase of 500,000 from previous estimates from 2012.

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The increase is understood to be partly linked to the rise in obesity due to the lack of exercise and irregular eating habits. The number of diabetes cases are expected to increase even further as Japan’s population ages, triggering a steady rise in overall healthcare costs and creating the need for efficient and scalable secondary prevention.

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The pilot program will be overseen by Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, a Professor of Social Epidemiology and the Chairman of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard University School of Public Health, a long-term Sidekick collaborator.

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