Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Get snap happy: New app for pre-diabetics to help manage health condition

SINGAPORE — Pre-diabetics may now use a new mobile application that allows them to take or load a photo of their food and check how healthy the dish is.

The JurongHealth Food Log mobile application scanning a bowl of beef noodles.

The JurongHealth Food Log mobile application scanning a bowl of beef noodles.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — Pre-diabetics may now use a new mobile application that allows them to take or load a photo of their food and check how healthy the dish is.

A pre-diagnosis of diabetes, pre-diabetes means that the blood sugar of an individual is higher than normal but has not reached diabetic levels. The condition affects 14.4 per cent of Singapore’s population and one in three people with pre-diabetes will eventually progress to type 2 diabetes within eight years.

The app, JurongHealth Food Log (JHFoodlg), is jointly developed by Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS).

As studies have shown that pre-diabetes is reversible with long-term lifestyle changes, the aim of the app is to help pre-diabetes patients make behavioural lifestyle changes that are sustainable in the long run.

The app is available to those who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes and are participants of the hospital’s diabetes prevention research study, the Lifestyle Intervention programme.

The app uses an artificial intelligence system to analyse food photos and display the dish’s nutritional values such as the number of calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The daily food photos and amount of exercise the patient has done each day will be compiled into a diary to allow the user to review his or her diet goals.

Healthcare professionals such as dieticians and physiotherapists will be able to view this data and advise their patients remotely via a live chat feature.

Ms Diane Seto, an allied health dietician at the hospital, said: “I can consistently advise patients to eat less foods that contain excessive amounts of refined sugar, which has no nutritional value, if I see their blood sugar levels are increasing.” 

The app also has a social feature which allows users to share and comment on photos of what they have eaten that day, allowing them to motivate one another.

Ms Lee Hee Hoon, NTFGH’s director of allied health and community operations, said that doctors tell patients with pre-diabetes to watch their diet and exercise more before the next check-up. “But often, people go back... try to exercise and watch their diet, and have a lot of difficulty doing so because it is not sustainable,” Ms Lee said.

The ongoing year-long pilot phase consists of three months of face-to-face consultations with healthcare professionals, followed by a similar period of remote consultations via the app and a final six months for patients to reinforce positive habits they have picked up.

Results have been promising, with 90 per cent of patients looking to reverse their pre-diabetes after losing 4 to 5 per cent of their weight since the pilot phase was launched in May last year.

Professor Ooi Beng Chin, NUS’ distinguished professor from the School of Computing and director of the Smart Systems Institute, said that the team is working to improve the app. For example, differentiating between different types of noodles can be challenging if there are no other distinctive features of the dish in the photo, but this is set to improve with a larger database of user photos.

Patients whose first language is not English will also have difficulty using the app and the hospital will have to boost the other language capabilities of their healthcare professionals before more languages can be introduced, Ms Lee said.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.