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The latest insights from Diabetes UK show that over 4.9 million people are currently living with diabetes in the UK, with rates almost doubling in the last 15 years. At the current prevalence rates, the NHS spends around £10 billion on average each year in managing and treating the condition, which will also increase alongside growing rates. However, research consistently shows that combined lifestyle interventions can be effective in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes by ~50%.

The pandemic has significantly impacted patient access to healthcare and millions of patients with diabetes have been unable to get regular health checks with their healthcare team. With many GP appointments still being held remotely, wearable devices are increasingly being piloted to help people monitor long-term health conditions and, as a result, the value of wearable devices to help people better manage such conditions is becoming increasingly recognised.

Focusing on holistic health

In November, people in the UK and particularly those living with diabetes, will be able to use a new blood glucose logging tool from Fitbit. They will be able to track their glucose levels by manually logging them throughout the day. Users can then view those levels right in the app alongside other metrics from Fitbit such as physical activity, sleep and their logged nutrition, to help better manage their holistic health and wellness all in one place. Within the app, users will be able to set personalized ranges so they can see when they are outside their target range to better identify important changes. They can also receive reminders to log their glucose levels so they can view their trends over time.

Fitbit has a multi-year partnership with Diabetes UK to help raise awareness of the condition and help educate people on the importance of getting to know their body and how it works. This is in order to encourage behavior changes that may help lessen the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and help people to understand and manage their diabetes, in addition to benefiting overall health and wellbeing.

“We want to help empower people with cardiometabolic conditions such as diabetes so they can better manage their health and wellbeing,” says Nicola Maxwell, head of Fitbit Health Solutions in EMEA. “We hope that by making the blood glucose logging feature available through our app, it will help provide accessibility for more people. We are passionate that our work with Diabetes UK will continue to raise awareness for and help improve the health of those living with diabetes.”

Useful tools and technology

The increasing rates of diabetes, coupled with increasing focus on patient self-management, highlights the need for tools and technology to help people with diabetes better manage their condition.

“Often when people are diagnosed with diabetes, they feel overwhelmed and in reality have to spend most of the time self-managing their condition,” says Emma Elvin, Senior Clinical Advisor at Diabetes UK. “By logging their blood glucose levels in the Fitbit app, users can see what types of lifestyle factors affect their diabetes and how their blood sugar fluctuates. Seeing all their trends in one place can help people to gain back control. This can give them a greater sense of control and help them to begin to make small changes to manage their diabetes more effectively.

• The Blood Glucose feature is not a replacement for medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. It is intended to simply help you monitor and keep track of your information. You should talk to your healthcare provider for more guidance on blood glucose management.
• This feature is rolling out to all UK users, English only in November.

Today marks the beginning of the European SME week, a time to recognize the contribution that millions of small and medium-sized businesses make to Europe’s economy, as well as an opportunity to explore how they can be supported to continue to grow and thrive.

This time of year is especially critical for small businesses. Shoppers really care about supporting their local communities, with 56% of holiday shoppers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa saying they will intentionally shop more at local small businesses this festive season.

Small businesses are the key to recovery from the pandemic, and our digital tools have helped them sustain their business through lockdowns and enable new jobs, growth and exports. That’s why we rapidly adapted products to improve support and provided training to help them make the most of digital technology. Supporting small businesses is a group effort, though — and the right skills and tools need to be underpinned by the right policies.

Providing helpful tools to connect with customers

The past year and a half has underlined the importance of technology in all parts of life — and small businesses are no exception. Research has found that small businesses in Europe with a sophisticated use of digital tools were able to build a ‘digital safety net’ during the pandemic, resulting in 80% better sales and 60% better revenue.

One example of this is the German company, das schöne leben. Opened in 2016, the store specializes in exceptional food and designer products for everyday living. When the pandemic hit, the founders of the store started advertising online alongside their in-store sales, and set up a Business Profile on Google Search and Maps to help existing and potential customers find them. Das schöne leben now has customers of all ages throughout Germany and has tripled their direct online orders with their first in-house search campaign.

The example of das schöne leben and countless others show that online ads help businesses of all sizes find audiences they otherwise may lack access to, help them enter new markets and help build brand awareness.

At Google, we continue to innovate and invest in making all our products and tools more helpful — launching more than 200 features since March 2020 to help businesses connect with their customers in this shifting landscape.

We’re also making it even easier for small businesses to manage their presence and connect with customers online. Businesses in Europe can now easily claim and verify their Business Profile directly on Google Search or the Google Maps app, and respond to messages directly from Search. Having more complete information online can have a huge impact for businesses: in Germany, for example, complete Business Profiles receive an average of over five times more calls compared to an incomplete profile. Moving forward, we recommend small businesses manage their profiles directly on Search or Maps. To keep things simple, “Google My Business” is being renamed “Google Business Profile.”

Ensuring that SMBs have the skills to get ahead

We know that providing the right tools is only helpful if businesses are able to use them. To make the most of the digital opportunities available to them, business owners need the right skills. Research has found that 22% of small business owners feel they lack the skills and knowledge to increase their use of digital tools.

Today, we are delighted to kick off our first-ever ‘Google.org Skills Week’ to help support select nonprofits mentoring thousands of underserved small business owners in Europe through scaled tech solutions. As a recent study highlights, medium, small and micro-enterprises — especially those led by women, young people, ethnic minorities, and migrants — were significantly impacted by COVID-19 with 70-80% facing major financial difficulties.

During this week, Google volunteers and product experts will share their skills and best practices through workshops, design sprints and 1:1 mentorship, to help educate select nonprofits that provide mentorship to underserved SMB owners. This week of training touches on many different skills including product management, design, marketing and AdGrants, Artificial Intelligence, YouTube, impact measurement, and aims to better equip the nonprofits to help small businesses improve their online presence.

We have seen how powerful these skills can be in helping to grow and scale businesses across Europe.

For Andrea Li Puma, the owner of the food truck Pastammore based in Bucharest, access to digital skills was essential to reach new customers and grow his business. The pandemic meant that Andrea had to take his food business online and pivot to deliver Pastammore’s homemade pasta directly to consumers at home. With support from Google.org-funded nonprofit Digital Nation, Andrea was able to develop an online marketing strategy, optimize his website, and launch new advertising campaigns that helped Pastammore survive through the tough period and even grow with sales increase by 15%.

Since 2015, over 18 million people across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have participated in our Grow with Google training, resulting in more than four million people getting a new job, growing their career or growing their business*.

To make sure our programs best help tackle the barriers to digital success, we developed partnerships with training experts, public agencies and policy makers. For example, in France we collaborate with FFAC — French Association of Local Stores — in supporting 30,000 local shop owners everywhere in France in their digital transition.

A more inclusive economic recovery

The pandemic has been disruptive and small businesses have been at the sharp end of this change. While challenging, this past year and a half has also underlined how resilient small businesses can thrive through partnership, openness and innovation. Europe has a great opportunity to build a digital, inclusive, and sustainable recovery that works for everyone. We are excited to play our part in this.

*Analysis by Google based on internal data and a survey by Ipsos from Sep 2016 to Sep 2021 amongst EMEA residents trained via Digital Workshop.

Understanding gender can be a lifelong journey for many folks. Coming out as trans or nonbinary can include a lot of changes, including the use of different pronouns or a different name, or physical changes. None of this is easy. Something as simple as seeing an old photo of yourself can be painful if it doesn’t match who you are now on your journey.

We heard directly from members of the transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive (GE) communites on this issue. To learn how we could help make reminiscing with Google Photos more inclusive, we worked with trans and gender expansive users and brought in our partners at GLAAD.

Working with GLAAD, we conducted qualitative research interviews with trans individuals and community leaders. These focus groups, along with our own transgender community at Google, played an important role in shaping how Memories in Google Photos works. We learned that control over Memories would be necessary and that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

To give you control, we made it possible to hide photos of certain people or time periods from our Memories feature. And soon you’ll be able to remove a single photo from a Memory, rename a Memory, or remove it entirely. We’re making all these controls easy to find, so you can make changes in just a few taps.

In addition to the work we are doing to make Google Photos more inclusive, we wanted to make sure we are also supporting non-profits that directly serve the transgender community. Google.org is giving cash grants to such organizations that are providing critical services and resources directly to transgender and GE communities across the globe. Some of the organizations included are the Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline and Transgender & Intersex Africa.

Google.org is proud to support the transgender and GE communities in our broader work on gender equity too. As part of the Google.org Impact Challenge Women and Girls, we recently announced financial support for both Reprograma and TransTech Social, organizations that are focused on helping members of the community reach their full economic potential and thrive.

In addition, Google.org continues to donate Search Ads and enable Googler volunteer efforts to benefit organizations like Transgender Law Center, Reprograma, and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. This enables these LGBTQ+ nonprofits to advocate for the Trans Agenda for Liberation, direct community members to pro bono legal resources, provide direct aid to transgender people in need and raise critical funds to advance transgender equality.

We hope the changes to Google Photos make it better for everyone, and that the work we’re doing with these organizations can truly impact the transgender community. There’s still more to do, but we’re committed to doing this work together.

Comprender el género de uno mismo puede ser un proceso de toda la vida. Identificarse como trans o de género no binario puede implicar muchos cambios, incluido el uso de diferentes pronombres o un nombre distinto, o bien cambios físicos.Nada de esto es sencillo. Algo tan simple como ver una fotografía vieja de uno mismo puede ser doloroso si no coincide con quién uno es ahora.

Recibimos testimonios directos de miembros de las comunidades transgénero, no binario y género expansivo (GE). Para obtener información sobre cómo podríamos hacer que los recuerdos con Google Fotos sean más inclusivos, trabajamos con usuarios trans y de género expansivo, y nuestros socios en GLAAD.

Al trabajar con GLAAD, realizamos entrevistas de investigación cualitativa con personas trans y líderes de la comunidad. Estos grupos de enfoque, junto con nuestra comunidad transgénero en Google, desempeñaron una función importante al moldear el funcionamiento de las Memorias en Google Fotos. Aprendimos que el control de las Memorias sería necesario y que no hay una única solución.

Este trabajo nos inspiró a darte el control para ocultar fotografías de ciertas personas o períodos de nuestra función Memorias. Y pronto podrás eliminar fotografía individualmente de una Memoria, cambiar el nombre de una Memoria o eliminarla en su totalidad. Estamos dejando todos estos controles en un lugar fácil de encontrar, para que puedas hacer cambios con solo un par de toques.

Además del trabajo que estamos haciendo para que Google Fotos sea más inclusivo, queríamos asegurarnos de también estar respaldando a organizaciones sin fines de lucro que prestan servicios directos a la comunidad trans. Google.org ha entregado subvenciones en efectivo a dichas organizaciones globales que ofrecen servicios y recursos críticos directamente a las comunidades trans y GE. Algunas de las organizaciones incluidas son Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline, Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Transgender and Intersex Africa y Gendered Intelligence.

Como parte del Google.org Impact Challenge para mujeres y niñas, recientemente anunciamos respaldo financiero tanto para Reprograma como para TransTech Social, organizaciones que se enfocan en ayudar a los miembros de la comunidad transgénero a alcanzar su potencial económico pleno y progresar.

Además, Google.org continúa donando Anuncios de búsqueda y habilitando esfuerzos de voluntarios de Google para beneficiar a organizaciones como Transgender Law Center, Reprograma y Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. Esto permite que estas organizaciones sin fines de lucro de la comunidad LGBTQ+ defiendan la Agenda Trans para la Liberación, remitan a los miembros de la comunidad a recursos legales gratuitos, brinden ayuda directa a personas transgénero que lo necesiten y recauden fondos críticos para lograr avances en la igualdad transgénero.

Esperamos que los cambios en Google Fotos sean para mejorar el producto para todos y que el trabajo que estamos haciendo con estas organizaciones pueda tener un verdadero impacto en la comunidad transgénero. Aún hay más por hacer, pero estamos comprometidos a hacer este trabajo juntos.