The potential benefits of treating gestational diabetes include reductions in ill-health in the woman and/or the baby during or immediately after pregnancy, as well as the benefits of reducing the risk of progression to Type 2 diabetes in the longer term.

In collaboration with the Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health (Dr Lucy Mackillop), we have developed a gestational diabetes self-management smartphone app (GDm-Health™) linked to a Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meter.  The patient tags the blood glucose readings (fasting, pre-prandial and post-prandial) and enters her insulin dose (if appropriate). Feedback is provided in the form of summaries of blood glucose data, as well as prompts and reminders as appropriate.

The system allows remote delivery of care and improved workflows. Greater efficiency results from medication adjustments between clinic visits and faster communication between members of the care team. GDm-Health™, which was licensed to Sensyne Health in 2017, is now a prescribed digital therapeutic to optimise the management of diabetes during pregnancy and is deployed throughout the NHS in England (and one region of the US).

We have also collaborated with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (Prof. Richard McManus) to develop a smartphone app for home blood pressure monitoring during pregnancy, used in the recently completed 3,000-women BUMP study, for women at risk of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia. Working with Sensyne Health, we re-purposed this to monitor at-risk pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BPm-Health™ app was approved by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and went live nationally in June 2020.