Hospitals, Patient Engagement

Study: Digital health empowers diabetes patients

A three-month experiment in Canada with bimonthly text messages, a Web portal and home-based medical devices produced an average weight decrease of 3.5 pounds and a mean reduction in hemoglobin A1c levels from 7.41 to 6.77 percent in Type 2 diabetics.

Mobile and social technology makes patients feel empowered in caring for their diabetes, leading to tangible health improvements in just a few weeks as well as a heightened sense of control, according to a paper presented Wednesday at the American Medical Informatics Association conference in San Francisco.

A three-month experiment with bimonthly text messages, a Web portal and home-based medical devices produced an average weight decrease of 3.5 pounds and a mean reduction in hemoglobin A1c levels from 7.41 to 6.77 percent, reported Dr. Kendall Ho, director of the eHealth Strategy Office at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (The A1c number is significant, Ho said, because anything below 7 percent indicates good control of Type 2 diabetes.)

Participants received Wi-Fi blood-pressure monitors and weight scales, both from Carematix subsidiary Blipcare, to upload data automatically to a secure website. They also self-reported blood-glucose levels from monitors they already had.

“We were going to use continuous glucose monitoring, but it was too expensive,” Ho said. Patients did a good job recording their own readings anyway, he noted.

Patients and their caregivers could see the same data trends as the clinicians managing their diabetes. They also received health tips and reminders through a portal and via text messaging, as well as access to a semi-facilitated discussion board with other members of the study group.

At the end of the three months, all participants rated the program favorably, and a 56 percent said they would be willing to foot the bill for the technology, about $100 up front and $20 a month for ongoing service, even if they were not actually able to do so. “The majority believe that this program provides a good value for the money, but there’s a good number that may not be able to afford it,” Ho said.

They saw value because they felt empowered, healthier and more in control of their lives by the increased self-awareness; many created self-care routines and habits from the data and feedback their received, Ho said.

“This new sense of self-confidence carried over into their expectations of future interactions with their doctor, as patients noted that they were now able have a more knowledgeable conversation and were more confident in knowing which questions to ask,” Ho and his research team wrote in a paper that accompanied the presentation; AMIA publishes peer-reviewed proceedings for its annual conference.

“In essence, participants felt they were now more ‘activated’ patients who would be more involved in making decisions about their care with their doctors.”

Photo: Blipcare/Carematix

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