在仍處于襁褓階段但卻蓬勃增長的數(shù)字醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域，有一家名叫Omada Health的公司取得了極不尋常的成就。2016年，該公司的糖尿病防治項(xiàng)目獲得了美國聯(lián)邦政府的大筆撥款。自此以后，該公司還在繼續(xù)保持增長，而且有9份業(yè)內(nèi)的研究結(jié)果都證實(shí)了它對糖尿病、心血管疾病和肥胖癥的積極療效。該公司的案例也表明，大數(shù)據(jù)對推動醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域的進(jìn)步是有現(xiàn)實(shí)意義的。

今年年初，Omada公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、CEO肖恩·達(dá)菲在接受《財(cái)富》專訪時(shí)表示：“重要的不是數(shù)據(jù)本身，而是你如何使用它。”無獨(dú)有偶，最近我們采訪的許多大數(shù)據(jù)和AI醫(yī)療公司的高管和行業(yè)觀察人士也持同樣觀點(diǎn)。達(dá)菲還表示：“將來最有用的數(shù)據(jù)類型是所謂的‘中間’數(shù)據(jù)——也就是病人在兩次就診之間的健康數(shù)據(jù)。”

這也正是Omada公司在防治糖尿病和心血管疾病上的核心思路。該公司會向用戶提供一些實(shí)用工具（比如物聯(lián)網(wǎng)電子稱等），也會為他們安排健康教練，為他們提供個(gè)性化的建議，替他們檢查體重、食譜、運(yùn)動習(xí)慣等健康指標(biāo)，有時(shí)也會簡單地發(fā)送一些養(yǎng)生目標(biāo)和激勵(lì)的話。Omada指出，該項(xiàng)目要想取得實(shí)效，重要的是養(yǎng)成病人的日常習(xí)慣，因此，收集上述“中間數(shù)據(jù)”顯得尤為重要。比如Omada的高級產(chǎn)品副總裁麥克·塔德洛克表示，即使是有些看似非常基本的信息，也是十分重要的，比如用戶是否定期檢查自己的體重。

塔德洛克告訴《財(cái)富》：“據(jù)我們所知，定期稱體重對于病人的健康結(jié)果也是很重要的。”長期監(jiān)測結(jié)果表明，定期稱體重的人，比那些不經(jīng)常稱體重的人更容易達(dá)到減肥的效果，其他生理指標(biāo)也要好于后者。這可能會讓一些人感到驚訝，因?yàn)橛行┤丝赡懿幌嘈牛饪窟@么一種輕松簡單的方法就能刺激用戶達(dá)到減肥效果。

Omada Health pulled off something that was, especially at the time, highly unusual in the ever-burgeoning yet still-fledgling digital health space: In 2016, the company scored federal government reimbursements for its diabetes prevention program. It’s continued to grow since then and shared results from nine different peer-reviewed studies noting significant results for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesitypatients—a case study in how at least one company in the sphere is using data to try and fuel real world patient outcomes.

“It’s not about the data itself, it’s how you use it,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy told Fortune in an interview earlier this year, echoing many of the chief executives and industry observers we spoke with for our recent feature on big data and AI in medicine. “The types of data that are going to be most useful going forward is the ‘in between’ data—what happens between actual health care visits,” he adds.

That mindset appears to inform the heart Omada’s approach to diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention. Users get tools such as a digitally-connected scale and access to health coaches who provide them personalized advice and check in on health biometrics like weight, diet, and exercise regimens, at times simply sending friendly reminders of goals and motivations. Day-to-day behavior is a critical part of making such a program effective, Omada says, making the aforementioned “in between” data collection particularly important. For instance, even seemingly basic information like whether or not a user has checked in on their weight can be significant, according to Omada senior vice president of product, Mike Tadlock.

“Stepping on the scale is actually very important to the health outcome, as we learned,” Tadlock tells Fortune. Over the long term, Omada’s data indicated that people who more regularly checked the scales were actually more likely to lose weight or improve other outcomes compared with less frequent users—a little bit of a surprise since some might think that a more casual and relaxed approach would be more likely to gently nudge users.