RIYADH: Saudi digital therapeutics startup Liven is keen to provide a path for the local populace to meet the ambitious plan of “Quality of Life” under Saudi Vision 2030 and aims to significantly improve the quality of diabetes management. Speaking to Arab News ahead of World Diabetes Day, Abeer Al-Olyan, co-founder and CEO of Liven, which aims to empower people with the knowledge and support to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle utilizing technology and evidence-based care targeting diabetes, said: “Liven is the first digital therapeutic startup in the region, a future mobile app to be prescribed by the doctor to manage Type 2 diabetes. “It is currently undergoing a feasibility study, partnering with the Lifestyle and Health Research Center at the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, which will be followed by an experimental randomized clinical trial in order to prove the effectiveness of the application in managing Type 2 Diabetes.” World Diabetes Day was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat posed by diabetes. World Diabetes Day became an official United Nations day in 2006 with the passage of UN Resolution 61/225, and it is marked every year on Nov. 14, the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin along with Charles Best in 1922. Every year, the World Diabetes Day campaign focuses on a dedicated theme that runs for one or more years. The theme for World Diabetes Day 2021-23 is “Access to Diabetes Care – If Not Now, When?” “As the Ministry of Health aims to enable the brightest national minds to create digital solutions through emerging technologies in an innovative ecosystem to enhance the quality of healthcare services in the Kingdom, Liven aims to significantly improve the quality of diabetes management by ensuring the personalization of the healthcare service being provided for each patient; it does that by individualizing the intervention based on the patient’s data and behavior, including their specific blood glucose pattern and their lifestyle,” said Al-Olyan. She said that with the privilege of the internet and virtual meeting platforms, the Liven team, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, has managed to continue making progress, join accelerator programs and connect with consultants and experts in the field throughout the pandemic and the subsequent quarantine period. The pandemic and quarantine periods have further proved the necessity of digitizing healthcare delivery and the importance of Liven, she said adding that during the pandemic, Liven announced free access to the platform and connected dietitians with diabetic patients to provide an online, no contact consultation for this high-risk group.