Israeli startup offers hope in global diabetes crisis

Years before the coronavirus spread around the world, DreaMed Diabetes AI, a small Israeli startup, was working on a platform to help people with diabetes – 34 million people in the US alone.

Covid-19 has triggered a crisis in healthcare for people suffering from chronic conditions like diabetes, thrusting DreaMed onto center stage.

About half of all people with diabetes cannot easily control their glucose levels and need constant medical advice. Even before the pandemic, with 46,000 patients to each endocrinologist, many were not receiving the necessary level of care. Now the situation is even worse.

“We have built a real artificial intelligence platform providing the necessary access to expert level treatment recommendations, 24/7,” says Dr. Eran Atlas, DreaMed’s co-founder and CEO. “We are bridging the gap between supply and demand of doctors with a decision support platform that can make the decision at the same level as any expert.”

In 2021, the company won FDA clearance for its AI-powered system designed to help healthcare providers manage patients and provide expert-level care for those with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

AdvisorPro, the platform created by DreaMed, analyzes data from a patient’s insulin pump, their blood glucose monitor and a glucose sample, using artificial intelligence to search for highs and lows, as well as specific patterns for each individual. The platform produces detailed recommendations and personalized management tips that the patient’s care provider can review, edit and then share via email, app or print.

A randomized clinical study showed that the outcome for people treated using AdvisorPro was identical to the results achieved by specialists from leading clinics in the US and Europe.

Experts say it is changing the way consultations are conducted both in person and remotely.

“The ability to upload insulin and glucose data from the various devices people use at home has tremendously changed the way a clinic visit can be performed,” says Dr. Revital Nimri, director of the Scientific and Technology Diabetes Service at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. “The DreaMed platform enables a new way of virtual communication with patients that we care for and enables us to adjust insulin doses personally providing precision medicine in an effective manner and in a short time.”

Nimri says the platform also frees up time so that the doctor and patient can have an “educational conversation” about how best to handle the disease.

“My colleagues practicing in several academic diabetes centers in the US and Europe used the DreaMed platform in trial either in clinical multicenter study or in routine clinics,” she says. “Their feedback was highly positive and most of them wanted to keep using the DreaMed platform and advisor for routine clinical practice.”

The company received its first FDA clearance in 2018 for patients with Type 1 diabetes who are on insulin pumps. That market was limited, with just 600,000 patients. In 2021, the company received FDA clearance for patients with Type 2 diabetes who are on insulin – a population of many millions.

DreaMed has completed a pilot program with 20 institutions including endocrinology clinics at Texas Children’s Hospital and the University of Florida Hospital. The company is poised to sign deals with several Top 10-rated clinics in the US and plans to expand to other countries including the UK and Israel.

The company has received $6.5 million in funding and is currently raising another $10 million from investors including OurCrowd, based in Jerusalem. While it is currently focused on treating diabetes, it has plans to extend the use of the platform to patients with other chronic diseases.

“In five years, I can see DreaMed as a main element in any health system that is looking to balance the gap between the supply and demand for doctors,” Atlas says.

DreaMed is raising an investment round on the OurCrowd platform. For more information, click HERE.