Charity launches ‘Diabetes App Challenge’
pharmafile | August 21, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications | apps, diabetes, digital
Diabetes UK has launched its Diabetes App Challenge for younger insulin dependent patients.
The Diabetes App Challenge wants people with type I diabetes, aged 16 to 25, to design and test internet and mobile phone apps, with the aim of getting the most out of their healthcare appointments.
The competition is part of a research project with the UK charity, and participants could win money at the same time as shaping effective healthcare for themselves and others.
Diabetes UK said that app designers could also benefit from the challenge, as they need input from young people with type I to fully understand what they need from an app.
The competition will be fed into research at the Peninsula Medical School and Plymouth University, which are supported by a grant from Diabetes UK.
Lead investigator Professor Jonathan Pinkney, said: “Since the competition opened, nine teams have come together to produce apps, including young people with diabetes and computer science students from all over the UK.
“However, there are app designers keen to take part, but who are in need of some diabetes know-how and who want to team up with young people with diabetes.”
The researchers believe that modern technology already in the hands of young people could help them to interact more effectively with healthcare professionals in a way that suits them.
The competition closes on 14 October 2012, after which, the researchers will invite more young people with diabetes to try out and review shortlisted apps. Designers of shortlisted apps will receive a payment every time someone downloads their app.
The most successful apps will go on to inform future research on diabetes self-management for young people.
Comment
Having patients help design apps is a good way of creating bespoke services, and is something the Department of Health ran nationally last year, with a view to allowing GPs to ‘prescribe’ apps for patients.
The ultimate aim here is to help type I patients get the best out of their clinical appointments, but the methodology of using people with a condition to help design their own digital services could be of good use for pharma.
Too often I have said that these apps are aimed at the wrong people – i.e., older people who do not regularly use smartphones or tablets, and therefore cannot benefit from these types of applications.
But being specifically aimed at a younger demographic with a chronic disease makes the exercise more worthy, and potentially will allow this age group to grow up using digital solutions more regularly as a part of their healthcare programme.
This will continue to drive the rise of the ‘ePatient’, and perhaps too the slower rise of the ‘eDoctor’.
Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and author of the DigiBlog site. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.
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