The BHF-Turing Cardiovascular Data Science Awards (Second Call): Precision medicine in type 2 diabetes: developing and testing a decision support tool for primary care to optimise the selection of glucose-lowering therapy (joint funding with The Alan Turing Institute)
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a serious, common condition which occurs when problems with the hormone insulin lead to high levels of sugar in the blood. Prolonged high blood sugar causes various health problems. Metformin is the first drug prescribed to most people with T2D to lower blood sugar and reduce the risk of complications such as heart and circulatory diseases, kidney disease, and blindness. Many people with diabetes also require a second medication to manage their blood sugar. There are four second-choice diabetes drugs to choose, but there is uncertainty about which is best for a particular person. Recently it was shown that an individual’s characteristics such as sex, weight, and standard blood test results, influence how well they will respond to the second-choice medications. Statisticians Dr Sebastian Vollmer and Dr John Dennis are developing a computer program that will use this simple clinical information to help select which of the second-choice medications is best for each individual with T2D, in addition to metformin. A large volume of data from clinical trials and a UK database of electronic health records will be used to develop and test the computer program. Medical records will be analysed to see if using the program to help doctors better decide treatment could also reduce the occurrence of heart attacks or strokes. This research could benefit people with T2D by ensuring that they are prescribed the most appropriate medications.
Project details
| Grant amount | £65,473 |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Chairs & Programme Grants |
| Application type | Special Project |
| Start Date | 01 January 1900 |
| Duration | 1 year, 6 months |
| Reference | SP/19/6/34809 |
| Status | In Progress |
