people in the United States estimated to have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes in 2023.
CDC
Verified why
Diabetic life is 24/7 infrastructure.
The case for OpenDiabetic is not abstract. Diabetes creates medical risk, daily cognitive load, family coordination work, paperwork, supply pressure, and real cost. The response should be organized, local-first, privacy-preserving, and human.
U.S. adults estimated to have prediabetes.
CDC
estimated annual U.S. cost of diagnosed diabetes in 2022.
ADA
higher likelihood of depression among people with diabetes than people without diabetes.
CDC
The danger
Diabetes can damage the systems people depend on to live independently.
CDC describes diabetes as a chronic condition where blood sugar can remain too high over time, creating serious health risks. CDC lists heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease as examples of serious health problems, and reports that diabetes is the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness in the United States.
This is why OpenDiabetic treats diabetic support as infrastructure: records, routines, care notes, emergency sheets, supply coordination, local support, and family communication all matter.
Verified risk facts
- Diabetes is a chronic health condition that affects how the body turns food into energy.
- Over time, too much blood sugar can cause serious health problems.
- CDC identifies diabetes as the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness.
- CDC says diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
- Mental health and diabetes affect each other; untreated mental health issues can make diabetes harder to manage.
The 24/7 workload
The person is not only managing glucose. They are managing life.
Daily routines
Food, movement, sleep, stress, medication routines, device alerts, and care-plan tasks have to fit into normal life.
Records and paperwork
Labs, insurance, prescriptions, hospital papers, portal messages, medical contacts, and care notes are often scattered.
Supplies and cost
People have to track medications, devices, refill timing, coverage rules, delivery, backups, and affordability pressure.
Family and support
Caregivers need updates, emergency context, appointment prep, local help, transportation options, and permission boundaries.
Hard cost facts
ADA reports the total estimated cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2022 was $412.9 billion: $306.6 billion in direct medical costs and $106.3 billion in indirect costs. ADA also reports average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.6 times higher than they would be without diabetes.
The stress
Cost and coordination become part of the condition.
Financial pressure, missed refills, insurance friction, travel to appointments, post-hospital recovery, and family communication can turn diabetes into a constant logistics problem. Digital tools help only if they reduce that burden instead of creating another silo.
OpenDiabetic does not replace medical professionals. It organizes records, reminders, education, local resources, and support workflows so people can show up better prepared and less alone.
The swarm
Good diabetic outcomes take more than one app.
It takes the person, family, clinicians, educators, local vendors, donors, volunteers, researchers, developers, and trusted compute working around the person without taking ownership of their data.
How OpenDiabetic can make a difference
- Local-first records vaults that keep documents organized under user control.
- DiabeticOS reminders, checklists, emergency sheets, appointment prep, and supply tracking.
- DiabeticMOS coordination for support circles, care packs, vendors, and volunteers.
- Developer datasets, evaluation harnesses, and privacy guardrails for safer tools.
- Research compute that supports public-good work without harvesting diabetic data.