Going AP+: Creating real patient value with an artificial pancreas

A key milestone in challenging and rethinking the status quo of Type 2 diabetes care

A wide range of diabetes related professionals from different disciplines who are involved in the CLOSE consortium joined some selected external key opinion leaders in a two-day design-thinking event on 10-11 July at IESE Business School in Barcelona. The Going AP+ Value Concept Design workshop, a key milestone for improving Type 2 diabetes care was designed to challenge participants to question, disrupt, and rethink the status quo of Type 2 diabetes treatment. We gained a wide range of additional insights that will guide the future work in the CLOSE project.

The event started with a state-of-the-art session, drawing on findings from patient questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews carried out by the CLOSE consortium, which was built out of the CLOSE project, an EIT Health Innovation Project. Expert insights were provided by the external diabetes key opinion leaders joining from the ClosedLoop4Meal consortium, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, currently developing an artificial pancreas for Type 1 diabetes patients. The insights and resulting discussions provided vital elements and stimulated creativity for the ideation workshop.

The ideation workshop first looked into the different type of patients, willing to start on the AP, choosing three ‘personae’, Lisa, just diagnosed with T2D, Dominique with one year into insulin therapy, and Michelle already on an insulin pump. The groups empathise with the patient, trying to understand their goals, their realities, and their options in diabetes care, a crucial step in developing the patient needs assessment.

For each of the personae, a patient journey map was developed to gain a deeper understanding of their condition, their struggles with the disease, and the particular ‘pain-points’ in the care process, to identify where particular action is needed.

For the second day of the Going AP+ Value Concept Design workshop, participants took the role of the innovator. Building on the patient needs assessment we jointly brainstormed potential solutions, and distilled these ideas into critical points to address; these regarded patient education and empowerment, delivering information to the patient in a way that is not overwhelming, and ensuring that the patient confident and motivated to remain “compliant” in their diabetes treatment – all with a particular regard to the Artificial Pancreas in Diabetes Type 2. Albeit a real challenge, participants enjoyed the exercise, and developed a set of interesting ideas to realise the full potential of the AP for patients and other key stakeholders in the care process.

The workshop’s findings will be fed directly into CLOSE Business Validation and Market Analyses. Fresh ideas were generated– important in rethinking the care process, aligning the consortium on those issue that matters most for patients – in the development of a viable Business concept for the AP+. The next stop for the CLOSE consortium will a joint meeting at the conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Lisbon, September 11th 2017.