## 3 Results
### Workshop Discussion and Survey  
From the six workshops performed, we observed that participants appreciated the value of being with other people with the same disease to share their stories, regardless of the patient segment and of their level of control of disease (good/bad). The virtual environment here used was described by patients as a good opportunity to meet, but some patients expressed a wish for regular in-person meetings in the future (e.g., in the form of 'walking groups' or a 'buddy system'). When patients were offered the opportunity to \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline  & **Medication** & **Lifestyle** & **Whole Sample** \\ \hline N. (\%) of patients & 261 (31.6\%) & 123 (14.9\%) & 825 (100\%) \\ \% male & 48.3\% & 49.6\% & 48.8\% \\ n. of comorbidities: & 1.5 (\(\pm\)1.08) & 1.5 (\(\pm\)1.18) & 1.4 (\(\pm\)1.09) \\ mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 68.7 (\(\pm\)11.62) & 69.0 (\(\pm\)12.95) & 68.6 (\(\pm\)11.69) \\ BMI: mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 31.8 (\(\pm\)6.88) & 31.6 (\(\pm\)6.62) & 31.8 (\(\pm\)7.18) \\ HbA1c mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 7.2 (\(\pm\)1.41) & 7.5 (\(\pm\)1.54) & 7.2 (\(\pm\) 1.18) \\ LDL: mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 2.1 (\(\pm\)1.02) & 2.0 (\(\pm\)1.11) & 2.0 (\(\pm\)0.97) \\ sBP: mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 130.0 (\(\pm\)13.6) & 130.4 (\(\pm\)14.5) & 129.8 (\(\pm\)13.3) \\ dBP: mean (\(\pm\)s.d.) & 74.5 (\(\pm\)9.3) & 74.8 (\(\pm\)8.5) & 74.5 (\(\pm\)8.8) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Characteristics of medication and lifestyle patient segments. share thoughts about \"how to realize collective intelligence in diabetes management\" (item #6 in the discussion guide; see Appendix A), themes such as sharing experiences, engaging primary care clinicians in organizing peer-to-peer groups, and meeting regularly emerged from the discussion. Table 2 summarizes the main outcomes from the surveys collected during the workshops (item #4 in the discussion guide; see Appendix A). Differences were observed across the groups in terms of measures of learning (question 1), topics of interest (question 2), practical strategies (question 3), and willingness to recommend to others (question 5), whereas a similar distribution of responses was observed in relation to overall feelings (question 4). In response to questions 1 and 3, patients from the mixed and lifestyle groups identified specific solutions to be adopted, e.g., walking, carb control, or using wristbands, apps, or specific exercise machines, whereas patients in the medication group mainly reported sharing of experiences, the effects of T2D, and the challenges of living with the disease, including mental wellbeing and possible practices to deal with stress (e.g., meditation). The distribution of responses to question 3 shows a marked difference between segments. Specifically, the majority of patients in the lifestyle and mixed groups (i.e., 4 out of 7 and 5 out of 9, respectively) reported that they learned something that they were willing to try, compared to only 1 out of 8 patients in the medication group. Regarding the distribution of responses to question 2, differences were observed between the three groups. Specifically, the number of patients interested in lifestyle preventive measures such as diet and exercise were higher in the lifestyle and mixed groups compared to the medication group (e.g., for exercise, 6 out of 7 in the lifestyle group, 9 out of 9 in the mixed group, and only 3 out of 8 in the medication group), whereas the number of