ADA 2023 Recap – New Method of A1c Testing for Better Diabetes Management and Diagnosis and More

The 83rd ADA 2023 Scientific Sessions occurred from June 23 – 26th in San Diego, California this year.

Many industry leaders and innovators attended this year’s conference to address the future trends and challenges associated with diabetes treatment and care. Core topics of conversation included:

• Automated insulin delivery systems can make it easier for people with diabetes to monitor and manage their health.
• Doctors are increasingly seeking research that helps promote better health equity.
• Weight management strategies are critical to support patient populations as diabetes rates continue to grow.
• Immunity therapy could serve as a key factor in the prevention of T1D.

Researchers and professionals demonstrated that they are working hard to make living with diabetes less burdensome and manageable in one’s daily life.

One of the most notable research progress shown in this year’s conference was in closed-loop automated insulin delivery (AID) systems. The diaTribe Foundation discussed the healthcare innovation, focusing on glucose monitoring technologies that communicate with an insulin pump to adjust one’s insulin dosage throughout the day.

The foundation also covered new immune therapies and weight management strategies and featured experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Abbott Diabetes Care, and more.

New medicines for diabetes, such as a new Semaglutide Pill from Novo Nordisk, which has shown that patients have lost 17.4% of their weight, were also presented during this year’s conference. One of the main focuses for pharmaceutical developers was type 1 diabetes prevention and potential cures. This included immunotherapies such as Tzield, which is the first and only treatment indicated to delay the onset of stage 3 Type 1 diabetes.

Eli Lilly and Company shared over 40 abstracts across their diabetes and obesity portfolio and pipeline. According to Senior Vice President of Product Development Jeff Emmick, “Our data presented at the ADA demonstrates continued efforts to deliver better outcomes for the millions of people living with diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases. Our incretin portfolio, the most expansive in the industry, has the potential to transform treatment for chronic diseases.”

Orange Biomed addressed several known limitations of the current A1c test methods during our ADA 2023 presentation.

These limitations include how sampling volume can affect accuracy in current methods and how hemoglobin variants can distort the test results disproportionately depending on one’s racial/ethnic background.

Orange Biomed’s novel method of testing, OBM rapid A1c, overcomes hemoglobin variants’ interference by applying advanced microfluidic technology instead of using protein biomarkers. The new diabetes technology is also based on single-cell analysis, meaning it is not affected by varying sampling volume or undesirable body fluids blended with the blood when obtained by fingerstick.

Dr. Ko, the Co-President of Orange Biomed, said, “I was pleasantly surprised to see that health equity was one of healthcare professionals’ core focuses this year. Many providers showed interest in our device due to its potential to reduce health equity gaps in A1c testing methods.”

Our team was honored to be able to present the OBM rapid A1c along with other healthcare innovations at the conference this year.