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Digital health company Omada Health presented encouraging research results on Tuesday suggesting its diabetes prevention platform — which virtually connects prediabetic patients with health coaches and clinicians — could help curb the symptoms of the disease as well as an equivalent program delivered in person.

The research is in some ways the biggest test yet of a digitally rendered diabetes treatment program ever performed. The study — a randomized controlled trial of nearly 600 people with prediabetes — is larger, longer, and more rigorous than previous studies of similar programs. Omada shared its findings in a presentation during ObesityWeek, a virtual medical conference organized by the Obesity Society; they have yet to be published in a scientific journal.

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Its conclusions were promising, if preliminary: People randomly assigned to participate in Omada’s digital plan for 12 months lost marginally more weight and saw slightly higher improvements in average blood sugar levels than people enrolled in a basic educational health program offered by the University of Nebraska. With regard to weight loss, older participants did particularly well in Omada’s program.

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