The South West London ICS Diabetes Prevention Decathlon has been shortlisted for the Empowering Patients Through Digital Award at the inaugural HSJ Digital Awards.
The HSJ Digital Awards have been established to celebrate excellence in digitising, connecting and transforming services.
In its opening year, the HSJ Digital Awards aims to shine a light on the outstanding efforts and achievements that individuals and teams across the digital sector deliver on a daily basis.
The Diabetes Prevention Decathlon was shortlisted amongst competition from 314 entries by a judging panel made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community.
The criteria for shortlisting contained five elements: ambition; outcome; value; involvement and working together and crucially, how the project might be “picked up” and replicated elsewhere for the benefit of both patients and professional colleagues.
The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 22 June 2023 in Manchester.
About the Diabetes Prevention Decathlon
The Diabetes Prevention Decathlon is a 10 week programme that helps people avoid being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after being identified as being high risk by their GP. The course is delivered as face-to-face group sessions and as online groups, empowering local people to develop healthier habits which they can build into their everyday lives.
Participants attend weekly, and within their teams collaborate to discover how to best reduce their risks through theory sessions, games, discussion as well as having a 45-minute physical activity session that includes a variety of sports.
The first cohort of 57 Merton and Wandsworth residents who took part in the Diabetes Prevention Decathlon lost an average of 3kg in weight, with one person shedding over 10kg. On average, people taking part became almost 50% more physically active, which in real terms meant that 22 million steps whilst in the programme.
The Diabetes Prevention Decathlon was developed by South West London ICS in collaboration with South London Health Innovation Network, Sweatco, Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network and the Public Health department at Richmond and Wandsworth Councils . Working with Sweatco we developed a bespoke Prevention Decathlon version of the Sweatcoin app, rewarding participants for completing health education activities and being physically active between sessions.
We know changes to lifestyle can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and make a huge difference to someone’s health and wellbeing.”
Dipti Gandhi, Diabetes Primary Care Clinical Lead for NHS South West London
Dipti Gandhi, Diabetes Primary Care Clinical Lead for NHS South West London said:
“We know changes to lifestyle can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and make a huge difference to someone’s health and wellbeing.
“The Diabetes Prevention Decathlon programme uses small common-sense steps to help people get control of their own health. It also combines education, a fun physical activity programme and innovative technology like the Sweatco app to incentivise participants. They also got great support from the health coaches.”
We’re really excited about launching the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Decathlon in the coming weeks.”
Chris Gumble, Long Term Conditions and Prevention Project Manager
Chris Gumble, Long Term Conditions and Prevention Project Manager, said:
“This really is wonderful news – the fact we’ve been shortlisted in the HSJ Digital Awards 2023 is a huge ‘pat on the back’ for all of our hard work.
“Our team always go above and beyond to improve patient outcomes and quality of service and care. We know that the best way to do this is by working with our partners not just from across health and care services, but from community and business too. Being shortlisted gives us a great platform to share our successes with the Diabetes Prevention Decathlon and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. We hope we might even inspire other colleagues across the UK to collaborate with their partners to put their ideas and innovations into practice to make a real difference to their patients and service users too.
“We’re really excited about launching the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Decathlon in the coming weeks, and are now focussing on further developing the Prevention Decathlon so that we can help people who are at risk of developing other long term conditions conditions.”
HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds:
“On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate South West London ICS on being shortlisted as a finalist in the category of Empowering Patients Through Digital. All of the applications represent the ‘very best of the NHS’ and often leave our esteemed panel of judges with an impossible choice!
“We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in June, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and continuously driving for better service. But we never forget that the award ceremony is not just a celebration within a night, but a platform to recognise the hard work of all our NHS staff, all year round.”
The full list of nominees for the 2023 HSJ Digital Awards can be found at https://digitalawards.hsj.co.uk/