这家公司靠大数据治疗糖尿病，还拿了美国政府的拨款

在仍处于襁褓阶段但却蓬勃增长的数字医疗领域，有一家名叫Omada Health的公司取得了极不寻常的成就。2016年，该公司的糖尿病防治项目获得了美国联邦政府的大笔拨款。自此以后，该公司还在继续保持增长，而且有9份业内的研究结果都证实了它对糖尿病、心血管疾病和肥胖症的积极疗效。该公司的案例也表明，大数据对推动医疗领域的进步是有现实意义的。

今年年初，Omada公司的联合创始人、CEO肖恩·达菲在接受《财富》专访时表示：“重要的不是数据本身，而是你如何使用它。”无独有偶，最近我们采访的许多大数据和AI医疗公司的高管和行业观察人士也持同样观点。达菲还表示：“将来最有用的数据类型是所谓的‘中间’数据——也就是病人在两次就诊之间的健康数据。”

这也正是Omada公司在防治糖尿病和心血管疾病上的核心思路。该公司会向用户提供一些实用工具（比如物联网电子称等），也会为他们安排健康教练，为他们提供个性化的建议，替他们检查体重、食谱、运动习惯等健康指标，有时也会简单地发送一些养生目标和激励的话。Omada指出，该项目要想取得实效，重要的是养成病人的日常习惯，因此，收集上述“中间数据”显得尤为重要。比如Omada的高级产品副总裁麦克·塔德洛克表示，即使是有些看似非常基本的信息，也是十分重要的，比如用户是否定期检查自己的体重。

塔德洛克告诉《财富》：“据我们所知，定期称体重对于病人的健康结果也是很重要的。”长期监测结果表明，定期称体重的人，比那些不经常称体重的人更容易达到减肥的效果，其他生理指标也要好于后者。这可能会让一些人感到惊讶，因为有些人可能不相信，光靠这么一种轻松简单的方法就能刺激用户达到减肥效果。

Omada Health pulled off something that was, especially at the time, highly unusual in the ever-burgeoning yet still-fledgling digital health space: In 2016, the company scored federal government reimbursements for its diabetes prevention program. It’s continued to grow since then and shared results from nine different peer-reviewed studies noting significant results for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesitypatients—a case study in how at least one company in the sphere is using data to try and fuel real world patient outcomes.

“It’s not about the data itself, it’s how you use it,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy told Fortune in an interview earlier this year, echoing many of the chief executives and industry observers we spoke with for our recent feature on big data and AI in medicine. “The types of data that are going to be most useful going forward is the ‘in between’ data—what happens between actual health care visits,” he adds.

That mindset appears to inform the heart Omada’s approach to diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention. Users get tools such as a digitally-connected scale and access to health coaches who provide them personalized advice and check in on health biometrics like weight, diet, and exercise regimens, at times simply sending friendly reminders of goals and motivations. Day-to-day behavior is a critical part of making such a program effective, Omada says, making the aforementioned “in between” data collection particularly important. For instance, even seemingly basic information like whether or not a user has checked in on their weight can be significant, according to Omada senior vice president of product, Mike Tadlock.

“Stepping on the scale is actually very important to the health outcome, as we learned,” Tadlock tells Fortune. Over the long term, Omada’s data indicated that people who more regularly checked the scales were actually more likely to lose weight or improve other outcomes compared with less frequent users—a little bit of a surprise since some might think that a more casual and relaxed approach would be more likely to gently nudge users.