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Lark

In Prevention

  • Lark is an app-based (iOS and Android) DPP entirely powered by artificial intelligence, meaning users can get real-time feedback without waiting for a coach.
  • A simple red-yellow-green system makes food logging simple and convenient for users.
  • Lark markets both to individual users in addition to employers, increasing its availability to the general public.
  • Cost for individual users is $19.99/month, which is less expensive than comparable digital DPPs with real-life coaches.
Lark’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn a good deal of attention, and for good reason. AI holds the promise of combining the personalized feedback, motivation, and guidance of one-on-one coaching, but the convenience, rapid responses, and low-cost scalability of automation.
  • Summary
  • Why It Stands Out

Summary

Lark is an app-based Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) with the unique feature of being almost entirely automated, based on artificial intelligence that augments a small team of specialized human coaches.[1] This automation means that users can receive instant feedback at any time, simply by texting their nutrition and physical activity, or connected scale information to their automated coach. Lark also features an option for logging meals based on a straightforward three-color system (red, yellow, and green, like a stoplight), which has the potential to reduce the burden of logging, potentially increasing retention among users who might otherwise find logging to be too much of a hassle. Likely because it uses artificial intelligence instead of live coaches, Lark’s weight loss offering costs $19.99 per month for individual users, somewhat less than comparable programs. Its DPP costs $31.60 per month and includes a digital smart scale. Yes Health, the other major app-based DPP that markets directly to individuals, for example, has live coaches available 14 hours per day, but costs $39 per month for the first 4 months, and then $15 per month for the maintenance program thereafter.[2] Lark also works with healthcare providers, meaning it can compete in that market with other programs like Omada.

Why It Stands Out

Lark’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn a good deal of attention, and for good reason. AI holds the promise of combining the personalized feedback, motivation, and guidance of one-on-one coaching, but the convenience, rapid responses, and low-cost scalability of automation. Lark has been named one of the “10 Best Apps of 2015” by Apple, and one of Business Insider’s “10 Most Innovative Apps in the World.” While Lark has not yet published any outcomes, its curriculum is approved by the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program (DPRP), so we are eager to see whether it can demonstrate comparable results from AI to those that can be achieved by live coaches.

  1. “Lark,” Lark, 2016, http://www.lark.com.
  2. “Yes Health,” Yes Health, 2016, https://www.yeshealth.com.

More Programs in Prevention

Skinny Gene Project

Skinny Gene offers an online DPP, a brick-and-mortar DPP, and community events like cooking classes for participants in San Diego County. The variety of options, whether online, in-person, or community-based, allow participants to choose the program that best fits their needs. DPP programs have a partnership with SideKick health, which provides mobile support and easy …

Florida Diabetes Prevention Program

The Florida DPP is a network of state-wide diabetes prevention programs, designed to help launch programs based on the original DPP study and to support, connect, and strengthen the programs that already exist. The Florida DPP website includes many free resources, including “how-to” guides on starting DPP programs, advertising and marketing materials, and tools for …

Healthimation’s Why WAIT

Born out of a collaboration between the Joslin Diabetes Center and Hollywood, Healthimation’s app version of a successful Diabetes Prevention Program – Why WAIT (Weight Achievement and Intensive Training) demonstrates the potential of gamification for healthy behavior change. The Why WAIT app uses Hollywood animation and an avatar named Lena to engage users in a …

View All Programs In Prevention

Mountain View, CA

https://www.lark.com/dpp-diabetes-prevention-program

Lark

Behavior Change, DPP Translation, Online/App-Based/Digital

Innovator

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Insights

Prevention presents a massive opportunity to save both lives and money. In the United States, the direct costs of diabetes, not counting lost productivity and early death or disability, is nearing $200 billion per year, and growing fast.
  1. The DPP is the answer
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  2. We need to learn more about incentives and motivation
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  3. Stratify risk, but don’t forget whole parts of the population.
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Prevention

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