Welldoc Diabetes Manager App
Diabetes management needs patients to adhere to complex self-management recommendations on diet, physical activity, blood sugar monitoring, risk-reduction behaviors, and medication adherence. All these behaviors have been associated with good blood sugar control, improved quality of life, and reduced complications (Shrivastava et al., 2013). Healthcare workers always advise patients with diabetes on these aspects of care, but what happens between visits? Shrivastava et al., (2013) cite that compliance to glycemic control behaviors has been found to be low, especially when targeting long-term behavior changes. WellDoc diabetes management app empowers patients with type II diabetes through real-time coaching and provider feedback while the patient is in the home setting (Drincie et al., 2016). That is, the application gives patients advice at the moment about their physical activity, diet, or taking medications, record patients’ diets in real-time, and automatically takes patients’ blood glucose levels and conveys them to the healthcare provider if any intervention is required. This allows the patients’ healthcare providers to make timely diabetes management decisions.
According to Drincic et al., 2016, people living with type II diabetes face difficulties in managing chronic diseases due to knowledge deficiencies, inadequate access to specialist services, and the inability to sustain lifestyle modifications. Besides, patients with diabetes require mathematical skills to calculate their calorie requirements as well as insulin doses, which may be technical for most patients. The WellDoc diabetes management application enables people with diabetes to overcome these challenges through reminders of self-management practices and facilitates communication with healthcare providers through touchpoint messages, video education, and education library available to its users (Drincic et al., 2016)
References
Drincic, A., Prahalad, P., Greenwood, D., & Klonoff, D. C. (2016). Evidence-based mobile medical applications in diabetes. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics, 45(4), 943-965. https:// doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2016.06.001
Shrivastava, S. R., Shrivastava, P. S., & Ramasamy, J. (2013). Role of self-care in the management of diabetes mellitus. Journal of diabetes & Metabolic disorders, 12(1), 14. https:// doi: 10.1186/2251-6581-12-14.