{ "abstract": "Exercise plays a critical role in diabetes management by improving glycemic control and reducing cardiovascular risk. However, personalizing exercise prescriptions to individual characteristics and preferences is challenging, especially given the global shortage of exercise professionals, and current approaches often rely on general guidelines that lack support for individualized, evidence-based planning. To address this gap, we developed the Diabetes Exercise Prescription Protocol (DEPP) knowledge base, a structured evidence resource to assist healthcare experts in formulating personalized exercise prescriptions. DEPP was constructed by manually extracting and annotating data from 529 English-language studies retrieved from PubMed, resulting in a curated set of 766 exercise prescription protocols. The system uses a browser/server architecture implemented with Flask, SQLite, and Waitress. The knowledge base enables personalized retrieval and comparison of evidence-based protocols using a novel “FITT-VP-WC” framework, which extends the established FITT-VP principles by explicitly integrating warnings and contraindications as core safety components. Usability and clinical utility were evaluated with 12 sports physicians and 16 students (SUS/NPS) and in a vignette-based comparison with 20 clinicians (DEPP vs. no tool). The overall SUS score was 80.18 (physicians: 83.13, students: 77.97, p > 0.05) and NPS was 28.6% (physicians: 50.0%, students: 12.5%, p > 0.05), indicating good acceptance. In the comparative study, DEPP-assisted prescriptions significantly outperformed those without the tool across three standardized patient cases (all p < 0.001), confirming its practical benefit. The knowledge base is freely accessible at http://depp.sysbio.org.cn. This resource offers a new tool for evidence-based, personalized exercise prescription in diabetes care with positive user feedback. Author summary: Regular physical activity is just as critical as medication or diet for managing diabetes, yet many patients struggle to get safe, personalized exercise guidance. The reality is that most clinical guidelines offer one-size-fits-all advice, and access to trained exercise specialists is limited. This leaves healthcare providers with little support when tailoring physical activity plans for individuals with varying complications, fitness levels, and health risks. To tackle this challenge, we built the Diabetes Exercise Prescription Protocol (DEPP), a free, online knowledge base designed to put evidence-based exercise recommendations directly into clinicians’ hands. Our team analyzed 529 scientific studies published over nearly four decades (1986–2025) and curated 766 specific exercise protocols. Unlike standard guides, DEPP introduces a practical framework that not only covers exercise type, intensity, and duration, but also highlights critical safety warnings and contraindications, helping doctors avoid potentially dangerous advice. We tested DEPP with real users, including sports physicians and medical students—and found that it scored 80.18 out of 100 on the System Usability Scale, placing it in the “excellent” range for ease of use. Its Net Promoter Score of 28.6% further indicated that users would generally recommend it to peers. More importantly, when we asked 20 clinicians to prescribe exercise plans both with and without DEPP, the protocols generated using our platform were significantly better in quality, proving that it offers real, practical value over clinical intuition alone. By making four decades of scientific evidence freely accessible and searchable, DEPP aims to empower healthcare professionals worldwide to deliver safer, more effective exercise guidance. We invite clinicians, educators, and researchers to explore the platform and put this resource to use at http://depp.sysbio.org.cn.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Health Management Center, General Practice Medical Center and Institutes for Systems Genetics, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China", "Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of A Coruña, Coruña, Spain", "Health Management Center, General Practice Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China", "Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China", "Department of Biliary Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University/West China School of Nursing, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China", "Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsink, Finland", "Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Division of Guideline and Rapid Recommendation, Cochrane China Centre, MAGIC China Centre, Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China", "Soft Matter and Molecular Biophysics Group, Department of Applied Physics and Institute of Materials (iMATUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain" ], "article_type": "Research Article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 18, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Ting Bao" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Xingyun Liu" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Shumin Ren" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Ke Zhang" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Jiale Du" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Danting Li" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Bingqing Liu" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Jinhua Feng" }, { "name": "Rongrong Wu" }, { "name": "Erman Wu" }, { "name": "Chaoying Zhan" }, { "name": "Min Jiang" }, { "name": "Li Shen" }, { "name": "Cheng Bi" }, { "name": "Yingbo Zhang" }, { "name": "Sheyu Li" }, { "name": "Juan M. Ruso" }, { "name": "Bairong Shen" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6v3rdk6cnchpf.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728", "fulltext_url": "https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728", "id": "6v3rdk6cnchpf", "issns": [ "2767-3170" ], "landing_url": "https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728", "language": null, "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "journal", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "openalex", "2737|Physical Activity and Health" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Sports science/Sports and exercise medicine" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Sports science/Sports and exercise medicine/Exercise" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Cardiology/Cardiovascular medicine/Cardiovascular diseases/Cardiovascular disease risk" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Endocrinology/Endocrine disorders/Diabetes mellitus" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Endocrinology/Endocrine disorders/Diabetes mellitus/Type 2 diabetes/Type 2 diabetes risk" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Health care/Health care providers/Physicians" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Cardiovascular diseases/Cardiovascular disease risk" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Metabolic disorders/Diabetes mellitus" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Metabolic disorders/Diabetes mellitus/Type 2 diabetes/Type 2 diabetes risk" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Public and occupational health/Physical activity" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Public and occupational health/Physical activity/Physical fitness/Exercise" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Sports and exercise medicine" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Sports and exercise medicine/Exercise" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Geographical locations/Asia/China" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Population groupings/Professions/Medical personnel/Physicians" ] ], "openalex": "W7213405490", "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728&type=printable", "pmcid": null, "pmid": null, "published": "2026-09-16", "publisher": "Public Library of Science", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6v3rdk6cnchpf.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:49Z", "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728", "source": "plos", "url": "https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0001728" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:cardiovascular diseases", "subfield": "cardiovascular" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:endocrinology", "subfield": "endocrinology-metabolism" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:public and occupational health", "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health" } ], "title": "DEPP: A diabetes exercise prescription protocol knowledge base", "title_text": "DEPP: A diabetes exercise prescription protocol knowledge base", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:49Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6v3rdk6cnchpf", "venue": "PLOS Digital Health", "versions": [] }