- Arjun Panesar has been featured in Scientists Making a Difference, a national science resource celebrating remarkable scientists and their impact on the world.
- The recognition places his work in AI, data and diabetes alongside scientists working across computing, medicine, space, the environment and engineering.
- It follows a long list of achievements, including Imperial College recognition, award-winning digital health work, bestselling books and academic roles in AI and precision health.
Arjun Panesar has been featured in Scientists Making a Difference, a science education initiative designed to bring the stories of remarkable scientists into schools and classrooms.
His chapter, Decoding Data, focuses on using data to help people live healthier lives.
It is a fitting theme for someone whose career has been built around turning health data, artificial intelligence and lived experience into practical tools for people with diabetes and other long-term conditions.
Arjun’s story began with family.
After his grandfather was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, Arjun founded Diabetes.co.uk in 2003 while studying Computing and Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London.
What started as an online community grew into one of the world’s largest diabetes platforms.
From there, it became the foundation for DDM Health and its evidence-based digital health services.
As Founding CEO and Head of AI and Ethics at DDM Health, Arjun has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of data, prevention, diabetes, obesity and health inequalities.
His work has helped move digital health beyond simple tracking apps and into personalised, clinically meaningful support.
The point is not technology for its own sake.
It is technology that helps people make better decisions, access support earlier and manage health in ways that fit real life.
Arjun’s contribution has been recognised widely.
Imperial College London named him an Emerging Alumni Leader in 2020, recognising alumni under 40 who have shown outstanding achievement, leadership and social impact.
Imperial’s profile highlighted how his work helped more than a million people better manage chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, obesity and fatty liver disease.
DDM Health’s work has also earned major industry recognition.
In 2024, DDM Health and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust won the HSJ Digital Award for Empowering Patients Through Digital for Gro Health W8Buddy.
The platform was recognised for supporting people on specialist weight management pathways and for showing how digital tools can improve access, personalisation and outcomes.
Earlier recognition includes Diabetes Digital Media being named Most Influential Diabetes Technology Company of the Year at the Diabetes Professional Care Industry Awards.
DDM also won an Innovation award at the UK Business Awards, where judges praised the company’s work in changing how type 2 diabetes prevention and management can be delivered.
Arjun is also a bestselling author and recognised thought leader in healthcare AI.
His books include Machine Learning and AI in Healthcare, now in two editions, and Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence.
He has also contributed to Springer’s Handbook of Global Health.
His writing has helped frame some of the central questions facing healthcare AI: how to use data safely, how to avoid bias, how to protect privacy and how to make precision health useful for people who are too often left behind.
His academic roles reflect that same focus.
Arjun is an Honorary Associate Professor at Warwick Medical School, a lecturer at WMG, University of Warwick, an advisor to the University of Sheffield Information School and a mentor at the UCL Institute for Global Health.
Through these roles, he teaches and advises on artificial intelligence, ethics, the digital phenotype and precision health.
- Who is Arjun Panesar
- New study finds weight loss app W8Buddy boosts outcomes in specialist obesity services
That combination of practical delivery, academic contribution and public impact is what makes the Scientists Making a Difference recognition feel well-earned.
Arjun is not being recognised simply for building a company.
He is being recognised for showing how data can be used responsibly to improve health, reduce inequalities and help people live better.
For a UK diabetes audience, the significance is obvious.
Diabetes care is becoming more digital, more personalised and more data-driven.
Arjun’s work has helped shape that shift from the inside.
His inclusion in Scientists Making a Difference gives that story a wider audience: students, teachers and the next generation of scientists who may now see health data and AI as a route to making a real difference.
