A new “personalised” online tool that predicts the most effective medication for individual patients with type 2 diabetes could benefit millions of people with the condition, researchers have suggested. It comes as a study found that fewer than one in five people with the condition in England are on the best medication for them to manage blood sugars.
Designed by researchers at the University of Exeter, the tool allows doctors to go online and input clinical data that is routinely collected on patients with diabetes. This includes body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, and HbA1c, a blood test that measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months
The platform then recommends the most effective medication to lower blood sugar for that individual patient. Researchers said their model is the first to their knowledge that gives a choice between five major drug classes, including DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1R agonists, sulfonylureas, SGLT2 inhibitors, and thiazolidinediones.
