Ascensia Diabetes Care supports World Diabetes Day by launching global social media awareness campaign

Today, Ascensia Diabetes Care is showing its support for World Diabetes Day by launching a global social media awareness initiative to highlight the positive role of mobile technology in the management of diabetes. The initiative is designed to reach a global audience via social media channels and mobilize members of the public to support World Diabetes Day by using their mobile phones to raise awareness of diabetes. Through these efforts, Ascensia Diabetes Care aims to demonstrate the importance of mobile technology and connectivity in helping people living with diabetes to better understand and manage their condition.

As part of the initiative, Ascensia has taken photos of their employees, people with diabetes, healthcare professionals and members of the public in various locations worldwide using illuminated mobile phones to spell out the word “DIABETES”. The initiative encourages members of the public to like, share or react to these digital postcards from across the world on their social media channels to show individual support for World Diabetes Day.

The use of mobile devices in diabetes management is increasing, with more and more people with diabetes using their mobile devices to help manage and track their condition. A survey of 909 people with diabetes in several European countries has shown that 71% of people with diabetes own a smartphone, 42% of them are using their smartphones for health or prescription drug information and 52% of them who are using a health or wellness app say they have changed their behavior as a result1. Advances in mobile technology are making it easier to collect, share, and draw insights from collected and analyzed information, empowering patients to help manage their condition using applications that seamlessly integrate into their lives.

“We are very excited to be participating in our first World Diabetes Day as a standalone company,” explained Michael Kloss, CEO of Ascensia Diabetes Care. “We are proud to lend our support to raising awareness for this condition. As a company that is 100% focused on diabetes, we are passionate about helping to improve the lives of people with diabetes.”

The theme of World Diabetes Day 2016 is “Eyes on Diabetes”, promoting the importance of screening to encourage early diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes, and help reduce the risk of serious complications. The use of mobile devices with diabetes management apps may help support testing and long-term management of diabetes.

Michael added:

Diabetes is a difficult disease to manage and there are many challenges for patients and healthcare professionals across the world. We believe that digital tools and mobile devices have the potential to help individuals consistently track their condition, by providing accurate, actionable information that may facilitate diabetes management.