A Self-Management Advocate App to Improve Value-based Care in Diabetes

The prevalence of diabetes and its complications is increasing resulting in substantial health and economic burden worldwide. Self-management and regular follow ups with multidisciplinary teams are essential elements in diabetes treatment and prevention of complications. Multidisciplinary teams include but are not limited to GPs, endocrinologists, diabetes educators, dietitians, podiatrists, optometrists/ophthalmologists, exercise physiologists and psychologists. Similar to many chronic diseases, main challenges in diabetes management are lack of patient engagement, poor communication, limited consultation time and resources. Self-management of diabetes requires lifelong commitment and is affected by multiple social, psychological and economic factors. Consultations with health care professionals are critical opportunities for patient education and motivation for better adherence in addition to screening for complications and optimising therapeutic interventions. Mobile applications have been proposed as potential tools to assist diabetes management. Currently, there are over 1000 mobile apps available in the field of diabetes. However, many are not user friendly, can be overwhelming and offer little compared to the burden they add for patients and clinicians. In addition, only very few have been developed using diabetes experts' input with often no appropriate evaluation of their safety and efficacy. To the best of our knowledge, no previous mobile app in the field of diabetes has specifically been designed to enhance the efficiency of clinical consults. This project aims to: 1- Co-design a mobile app to advance diabetes self management and improve value-based care in diabetes 2- Develop a question prompt list to facilitate communication between patients with diabetes and their HCPs 3- Evaluate the impact of the app in diabetes outpatient setting