Low Carb Program
The Low Carb Program is a digital behaviour change platform providing structured goal-focused education, personalised support and resources for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes patients to implement a lower carbohydrate lifestyle. The platform is a MHRA-regulated Class I Medical Device with CE mark, QISMET certified and NHS Apps Library approved.
Features
- Structured nutrition education for obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes
- Community peer support from over 430,000 members
- Behaviour change mentoring/coaching
- Patient centered goal identification and setting
- Personalised resources including culturally-specific meal plans and recipe ideas
- Data insights and AI-led feedback to support sustainable habits
- Explorable recipe library of over 1,400 tested recipes updated daily
- Health tracking: track blood glucose, weight, mood, food and medication
- Syncs with popular health apps + complementary Apple/Android Watch app
- Implementation and engagement support led by DDM Medical Officers
Benefits
- Safely augments traditional treatment pathways for patients
- Peer-reviewed, published health outcomes demonstrating significant patient benefit
- Demonstrated reduction in patient HbA1c, weight and medication usage
- Structured education tailored to gender, age, ethnicity and dietary preferences
- Localised BAME education delivered in Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic
- Behaviour change mentors to support patients 24/7 in real-time
- Implementation and engagement support (supporting patients and healthcare professionals)
- Healthcare professional onsite and digital training
- Real-time reporting: Population health dashboard for clinician use
- Face-to-face and digital healthcare professional education
Pricing
£99 to £299 a licence a year
- Education pricing available
- Free trial available
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 14
Service ID
1 2 5 2 9 4 6 8 9 1 1 8 3 6 2
Contact
DDM HEALTH LIMITED
Arjun Panesar
Telephone: 03301330307
Email: arjun@ddm.health
Service scope
- Software add-on or extension
- No
- Cloud deployment model
- Private cloud
- Service constraints
-
There are no service constraints other than a minimum operating system level.
Minimum software requirements are: iOS9 and above, Android 4.3 (Jellybean) and above, and Internet Explorer 9+, Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. - System requirements
-
- IOS: iOS9 or above
- Android: Android 4.3 (Jellybean) or above
- Web: Internet Explorer 9+, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- Response times are within 3 working hours during the week, and within 6 hours on weekends. Working hours are 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday, and 10am - 5pm on weekends.
- User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- Yes
- Online ticketing support accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
- Phone support
- Yes
- Phone support availability
- 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
- Web chat support
- Web chat
- Web chat support availability
- 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
- Web chat support accessibility standard
- WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
- Web chat accessibility testing
- Web chat is available through a ticketing system and also on the platform. The platform has been tested with assistive technology such as screenreaders and validated to work as expected.
- Onsite support
- Yes, at extra cost
- Support levels
-
To ensure that full implementation is successful the programme includes service support provided by DDM to ensure that healthcare professionals (HCPs) in primary care are equipped and confident to use the programme with their patients. All organisations receive a Healthcare Partnership Manager (Account Manager) to oversee technical queries, implementation, engagement and sustainability, available at all times.
Implementation support includes implementation, engagement and sustainability training and resources. A major component of this is to provide comprehensive training for healthcare professionals according to their requirements and the needs of their patient population. This would entail primary care healthcare professionals attending a workshop(s) locally which will be delivered by experts to enable carers to provide the appropriate care and support to the patients using the Low Carb Program.
Extensive training, support materials and healthcare professional community are also available through the digital Low Carb Program HCP online training hub.
DDM Medical Officers will also work with the surgery and/or CCG to develop a suitable programme of direct patient engagement using appropriate communication channels for the local community.
Implementation support costs are variable based on the number of patient licences purchased and also the number of people involved in on-site training. - Support available to third parties
- Yes
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
-
Users starting the service are supported by extensive implementation and engagement support provided by DDM's Medical Team to ensure that healthcare professionals in primary care are equipped and confident to use the programme with their patients. The Healthcare Partnership Manager is liason for all concerns.
Getting started is simple:
1. Healthcare professional training: Training for healthcare professionals is delivered according to the requirements and the needs of the local patient population. This entails primary care healthcare professionals attending a workshop(s) locally delivered by experts to enable carers to provide the appropriate care and support to the patients using the Low Carb Program. A digital platform provides healthcare professional training and resources for healthcare professional/patient engagement.
2. Select audience: DDM Medical Officers will also work with the surgery and/or CCG to develop a suitable programme of direct patient engagement using appropriate communication channels for the local community.
3. Engagement training: onsite and digital training on how to enrol users onto the platform, how to use the platform and physical resources to support users.
4. Onboarding: Enrolment of patients into the platform with near real-time population feedback. - Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
-
- HTML
- ODF
- End-of-contract data extraction
- There is a Population Health Management Dashboard where users can extract data for all of their users. Data can also be passed back directly via secure channels.
- End-of-contract process
-
The £99 per-patient licence fee covers access to the Low Carb Program for 3 years.
At the end of the contract, surgery/CCGs can extend the contract offering if desired. If not, members enroled on the Low Carb Program will be informed that their service access is coming to an end.
Users will be presented with three options - to subscribe for the service to continue their membership, to not subscribe for the service but remain as platform members (users can upgrade at any time), or users can delete their account.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Application to install
- Yes
- Compatible operating systems
-
- Android
- IOS
- Other
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
- Desktop services receive BETA features first. Desktop service has a larger interface and works with screen readers. Desktop service is WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.
- Service interface
- Yes
- User support accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
- Description of service interface
- Service interface provides the desktop experience for web users. This allows users to explore education, community support, behaviour change mentor support, personalised resources, recipes, help area, support area, and explore frequently asked questions. The service interface meets WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Accessibility standards
- WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
- Accessibility testing
- Service interface has been tested by users with visual impairments with a BETA test group of 5,000 users. It has been tested with popular screen readers to ensure accessibility.
- API
- No
- Customisation available
- Yes
- Description of customisation
- Buyers can customise education received by patients to local health economy - cultures, available foods, languages and medical settings. Bespoke education can be created for local communities. Education, support and resource development will be led by the Healthcare Partnership Manager in conjunction with the buyer.
Scaling
- Independence of resources
- The Low Carb Program platform's technical architecture has been developed such that additional load to the service does not impact other users. A scalable private cloud is used that upgrades the amount of resource (CPU, RAM, nodes) being used by the platform, so users aren't affected by other users' demands.
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
-
Engagement and health metrics are provided on all patients who opt-in/consent to having their data shared. Data is aggregated unless individual data sharing has been opted-in to.
Engagement level data shows: total number of vouchers issued, activation rates, completion rates and in-app time. Demographic data also available which includes location and surgery details.
Health metric data shows: weight change, blood glucose level change, HbA1c change, change in medications and their dosages. - Reporting types
-
- Real-time dashboards
- Regular reports
- Reports on request
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Not a reseller
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Conforms to BS7858:2019
- Government security clearance
- Up to Developed Vetting (DV)
Asset protection
- Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Data storage and processing locations
- United Kingdom
- User control over data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Datacentre security standards
- Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
- Penetration testing frequency
- At least once a year
- Penetration testing approach
- ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
- Protecting data at rest
-
- Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
- Physical access control, complying with another standard
- Encryption of all physical media
- Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
- Data sanitisation process
- Yes
- Data sanitisation type
-
- Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
- Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
- Equipment disposal approach
- Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
Data importing and exporting
- Data export approach
- Buyers can see population data on a Population Health Dashboard which is provided to buyers seperately to manage their population's health. CSV/TXT/Excel data exports to the buyer as requested. Users can export their patient data from the platform itself on the web through the Health Tracking cards within the Low Carb Program.
- Data export formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data export formats
-
- TXT
- XLSX
- XLS
- Data import formats
- CSV
Data-in-transit protection
- Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- Data protection within supplier network
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
- Service level agreements with all providers of resources guarantee 99.99% availability and uptime. Users are refunded with extra hours/days of access to the platform to compensate for any unavailable time.
- Approach to resilience
- All providers operate SLAs with guaranteed availability. Datacentre setup resiliency is led by Senior Management Team (including CDO, CEO, COO, CTO, CIO). The system has been designed for resiliency as a MHRA-approved Class I Medical Device with CE mark. The system complies with Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) Level 2+R and WCAG 2.0 Level A and WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance. Sensitive, personal data is not stored on the device. Datacentres are optimised to deal with load using a load-balancing system which operates to optimise the physical resources required to meet user demand and load. Datacentres have physical and digital security, including 24/7 security. All datacentre data is backed up daily. The architecture has been evaluated by cyber-security experts and confirmed as being resilient.
- Outage reporting
- There is a public dashboard to report service outages for all areas of the platform. Email and notification alerts are also sent to service users in case of outage, alongside social media posts.
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
- Username or password
- Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
- Management interface and support channel access restriction is ensured through monitored access to channels, with user logins and discussions archived for integrity analysis. Access is restricted to username/password credentials, with 2 factor authentication to ensure the user stated is the user using the interface/channel.
- Access restriction testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Management access authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
- Username or password
Audit information for users
- Access to user activity audit information
- Users have access to real-time audit information
- How long user audit data is stored for
- At least 12 months
- Access to supplier activity audit information
- Users receive audit information on a regular basis
- How long supplier audit data is stored for
- At least 12 months
- How long system logs are stored for
- At least 12 months
Standards and certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification
- Yes
- Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
- British Standards Bureau
- ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
- 23/02/2022
- What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
- Provision of Low Carb Program education programme is approved
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- Yes
- CSA STAR accreditation date
- 20/12/2021
- CSA STAR certification level
- Level 3: CSA STAR Certification
- What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
- Covers all aspects of Low Carb Program.
- PCI certification
- No
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- No
- Other security certifications
- Yes
- Any other security certifications
-
- Cyber Essentials
- ISO 27001 certification
- ISO 20000 certification
- ISO 9001 certification
- DTAC certified
Security governance
- Named board-level person responsible for service security
- Yes
- Security governance certified
- Yes
- Security governance standards
-
- CSA CCM version 3.0
- ISO/IEC 27001
- Information security policies and processes
-
DDM employ numerous security policies and processes in place including but not limited to: Clinical Risk Management Policy, CE Mark Policy, Information Security Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Data Protection and IG Policy, ISO9001, ISO27001 and Complaints Procedure.
Any feedback or queries regarding any of the policies and processes is sent to the DPO immediately and if required this is escalated into a response meeting, rather than waiting for our monthly company wide meetings. Quarterly management meetings are held in order to review and update all organisational policies. Roles and responsibilities are clearly demarcated within each policy and process, along with the reporting and maintenance cycle.
All bugs, feedback and incidents are immediately reported into internal communication software to CEO, CTO, CDO, CIO and COO (Management Team). Weekly meetings enforce policies with CTO, CIO and CDO reporting to COO and CEO. All users are trained on joining DDM on technical, security and medical issues and informed of processes and policies. Only 2 employees have access to user data, otherwise data is shared in anonymised format. All data access is logged and policies and processes reviewed every 3 months. CDO, Management Team and Medical Officers review policies and processes quarterly.
Operational security
- Configuration and change management standard
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Configuration and change management approach
- All feature requests and updates are discussed in weekly meetings, which are minuted. New features and updates are evaluated by DDM Medical Panel to determine clinical and technical hazards. All risks and hazards are listed and component evaluated. Components that pass clinical and technical governance are placed on digital project boards and tracked from development through to user evaluation. Finished components are archived and updated with any bugs or features. All new technical features follow UAT Testing Procedure, including testing all data storage and transfer security.
- Vulnerability management type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Vulnerability management approach
- Potential threats to services are assessed in terms of clinical and technical impact by the entire Engineering Team. Any threats regarding safety, including data security and immediately prioritised. Patches are deployed with 48 working hours of identification. Threats will be identified from UAT (regression, unit testing, etc), BETA testing, third-party organisations (penetration testing), real-time usage and clinical evaluation alongside news from security websites and resources. All bugs, exceptions and crashes are reported in real-time and patched within 48 working hours.
- Protective monitoring type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Protective monitoring approach
- Potential compromises are identified through weekly log analysis, expert testing, UAT testing, BETA use and real-time usage. All data access requests and logged with only 2 employees with appropriate credentials. Software that monitors data packets in/out of the architecture is constantly on and can be used to identify compromises. All incidents are responded to within 4 business hours. When a potential compromise is found, all data access and credentials are changed, IP whitelists and blacklists are updated and appropriate bodies (including ICO, MHRA), and subjects informed where appropriate.
- Incident management type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Incident management approach
- There are incident management processes in place for the service for common events, which are actively deployed in response to security incidents. This includes pre-defined processes are in place for responding to common types of incident and attack. Processes are robust, well tested and rehearsed. Users can report incidents through the website, social channels, within the app/platform, via email or through ticketing system. In-house AI algorithms monitor for adverse effects and clinical incidents. Incidents of relevance are reported within 5 business days of alert and provided as PDF a report.
Secure development
- Approach to secure software development best practice
- Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)
Public sector networks
- Connection to public sector networks
- No
Social Value
- Social Value
-
Social Value
- Fighting climate change
- Tackling economic inequality
- Equal opportunity
- Wellbeing
Fighting climate change
We utilise green IT strategies including data centre efficiency optimisation, use of renewable energy sources, and reducing electronic waste through recycling programmes. For each project, we setup a green strategy/initiative.Tackling economic inequality
We provide capacity building to VCSEs, paid work experience places and optimise our solutions to overcome the social determinants of health.Equal opportunity
Our services are designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring they are usable for people with disabilities. We support diversity and inclusion within our organisation and within our platforms.Wellbeing
The benefits of the platform itself provide social value as improved mental wellbeing, weight management and increased activity help modify obesity, and obesity prevalence is a significant and potentially modifiable risk factor of increased COVID-19 national caseload and mortality.
Pricing
- Price
- £99 to £299 a licence a year
- Discount for educational organisations
- Yes
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
- 10 free licences are provided to evaluate the service. This does not provide implementation support but enables a 30 day evaluation of the service.