Diabetes Apps Are Due a Sugar High

The Signal: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is on the rise, particularly among young people. According to 2018 CDC data, there are 1.6M Americans living with T1D. That number is projected to more than triple by 2050, growing to 5M patients (including 600K under the age of 20).

The background: Alarmingly, one London study saw roughly double the number of children diagnosed with T1D at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting a possible link between the diseases.

Technological interventions like apps have proven helpful in managing the condition, and the industry is trending toward technological rather than pharmaceutical solutions.

The market: The diabetes management app market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~25% through 2026.

Among the most popular existing apps are carbohydrate-counting tools like Carb Manager (~8M users) and blood glucose monitoring apps like mySugr (~3M registered users).

The opportunities

Despite the vast range of successful apps catering to T1Ds, diabetes is a complex condition that affects everything from gum health to libido, and there are plenty of unaddressed pain points, including:

Disease management: Research suggests that communication between patients and their health care teams is an essential component of T1D management, but nonattendance of appointments is a major problem.

One idea is a T1D-specific patient portal that connects all the health care professionals in a diabetic's care team and catalogs everything from blood results to injection-site health.

There is also room for a messaging app that connects T1Ds directly to a nurse or diabetes educator for help with real-time care decisions such as dosing.

Mental health: Diabetics are twice as likely to develop depression and eating disorders (like diabulimia) compared with non-diabetics.

You could develop a Happify or Talkspace for diabetics: An app that focuses on the psychological burden of diabetes management by mentoring users toward personalized goals, and connecting them with mental health professionals and support groups.

For more opportunities in this space, check out our Signal on the explosion in mental health startups.

The youth niche: More than 1 in 400 youth in the US suffer from T1D, while 85% of diabetes diagnoses are in people under 20 years of age. The average age at diagnosis? 13.

While young people have an especially hard time managing their diabetes, only a few existing apps target this niche.

Happy Bob offers blood glucose trend data in bright colors accompanied by a changing smiley face, while Invincible helps teachers care for T1Ds students during the school day.

Other ideas include apps for:

• Providing guidance on managing glucose in relation to sleeping in late, hormonal changes, school or social stress, and drinking alcohol.
• Gamifying glucose management.
• Educating newly diagnosed diabetics on the biology of diabetes as well as "health numeracy" for the interpretation of glucose data.

You could also serve young adults from minority groups (the largest-growing T1D population) with apps that offer different language options and cuisine-specific carb-counting tools.

Founders could also cater to T1D travelers with carb-counting tools for popular foods abroad or apps to manage the effect of time zone changes on injection schedules.