How to effectively design and create a concept mobile application to aid in the management of type 1 diabetes in adolescents

Diabetes is one of the eight most prevalent chronic health conditions in the World; therefore there is a wide range of diabetes-related mobile applications available to the public to aid in glycaemic control and self-management. Statistically, adherence to medication is extremely low in adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), therefore it is crucial that adolescents adhere to their medication from a young age and adopt good medication regimes. This paper focuses on the research and design of an interactive and educational concept mobile application aimed at adolescents, aged 11 to 16 years old, to aid in their understanding of T1DM. As visual elements are an essential part to the design of a mobile application, this research outlines how the visual components of the application were designed specifically for the target audience of adolescents with T1DM

Design and Evaluation of a Pervasive Coaching and Gamification Platform for Young Diabetes Patients

Self monitoring, personal goal-setting and coaching, education and social support are strategies to help patients with chronic conditions in their daily care. Various tools have been developed, e.g., mobile digital coaching systems connected with wearable sensors, serious games and patient web portals to personal health records, that aim to support patients with chronic conditions and their caregivers in realizing the ideal of self-management. We describe a platform that integrates these tools to support young patients in diabetes self-management through educational game playing, monitoring and motivational feedback. We describe the design of the platform referring to principles from healthcare, persuasive system design and serious game design. The virtual coach is a game guide that can also provide personalized feedback about the user’s daily care related activities which have value for making progress in the game world. User evaluations with patients under pediatric supervision revealed that the use of mobile technology in combination with web-based elements is feasible but some assumptions made about how users would connect to the platform were not satisfied in reality, resulting in less than optimal user experiences. We discuss challenges with suggestions for further development of integrated pervasive coaching and gamification platforms in medical practice

Smart Sensing Technologies for Personalised Coaching

People living in both developed and developing countries face serious health challenges related to sedentary lifestyles. It is therefore essential to find new ways to improve health so that people can live longer and can age well. With an ever-growing number of smart sensing systems developed and deployed across the globe, experts are primed to help coach people toward healthier behaviors. The increasing accountability associated with app- and device-based behavior tracking not only provides timely and personalized information and support but also gives us an incentive to set goals and to do more. This book presents some of the recent efforts made towards automatic and autonomous identification and coaching of troublesome behaviors to procure lasting, beneficial behavioral changes

Persuasive Social Support Features in Diabetes Self-Management mHealth Applications

Diabetes self-management is a challenging task and mobile health (mHealth) applications are one of the options that can assist and support the users in that process. The aim of this paper is to identify the social support features presented in these mHealth applications. Ten applications were selected and analysed based on the literature review and search of the phrase ‘The Best Diabetes Apps of 2018’ with the Google search engine. The results indicated that some social support features have been implemented in these applications however, its presence is sporadical. There is a need for further development of these apps, introducing and utilising features for social support such as social facilitation, cooperation, competition and recognition

Smartphone as a Personal, Pervasive Health Informatics Services Platform: Literature Review

Objectives: The article provides an overview of current trends in personal sensor, signal and imaging informatics, that are based on emerging mobile computing and communications technologies enclosed in a smartphone and enabling the provision of personal, pervasive health informatics services. Methods: The article reviews examples of these trends from the PubMed and Google scholar literature search engines, which, by no means claim to be complete, as the field is evolving and some recent advances may not be documented yet. Results: There exist critical technological advances in the surveyed smartphone technologies, employed in provision and improvement of diagnosis, acute and chronic treatment and rehabilitation health services, as well as in education and training of healthcare practitioners. However, the most emerging trend relates to a routine application of these technologies in a prevention/wellness sector, helping its users in self-care to stay healthy. Conclusions: Smartphone-based personal health informatics services exist, but still have a long way to go to become an everyday, personalized healthcare-provisioning tool in the medical field and in a clinical practice. Key main challenge for their widespread adoption involve lack of user acceptance striving from variable credibility and reliability of applications and solutions as they a) lack evidence-based approach; b) have low levels of medical professional involvement in their design and content; c) are provided in an unreliable way, influencing negatively its usability; and, in some cases, d) being industry-driven, hence exposing bias in information provided, for example towards particular types of treatment or intervention procedures

DiaLudus: Developing a Gamified Mobile App for Pediatric Diabetes Education

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disease that causes significant challenges for the patient and their parents, affecting them physically and mentally. Approximately 450 children are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Norway yearly, necessitating lifelong self-management of their blood glucose levels. Early knowledge acquisition is crucial to improving the patient's prognosis and self-management skills. This project aims to explore the potential of an educational gamified mobile application as a valuable tool for increasing knowledge in patients early on in their diagnosis. To gather the information necessary to design this application, we performed a systematic literature review, an interview with a medical doctor, and a discussion with a designer who is also the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. This information was then used to create model mock-ups, which were used to create the proof-of-concept prototype: a cross-platform mobile application consisting of multiple mini-games aimed to educate children on type 1 diabetes while increasing motivation through rewards. The app was developed using the Unity game engine, along with iterative development and internal testing throughout the development stage by fellow students and members of the author's research group. Assessment of medical accuracy in the app was performed by two medical doctors, knowledge transfer assessment was performed by students with self-reported low understanding of diabetes, and quantitative usability testing was performed by children aged 9-12 with type 1 diabetes. While the evaluation showed potential areas of improvement, it also showed that the application prototype is medically accurate, entertaining, and effective at teaching the knowledge it contains. We have created an educational gamified mobile application designed to educate newly diagnosed children with type 1 diabetes in an exciting and entertaining manner. Evaluation of the prototype shows great promise for using gamified educational applications as a knowledge-increasing tool in treating pediatric diabetes patients

Diabetes Management Self-Helper Mobile Application for Malaysian Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Diabetes is worldwide epidemic that is included projected to be 7 th highest death cause by 2030. WHO updated in March 2013 that 347 million people around the world are affected by diabetes. To improvise diabetics’ self-management, self-help mobile health applications are introduced for smartphones users around the world to help them in managing the disease effectively and efficiently. However, studies show that these applications are lacking in many areas and specifically in Malaysia, the existence of applications that are made for local type 2 diabetes patients is negligible as most of them are made overseas, hence do not really take specific lifestyle patterns of Malaysians into account