Designing Mobile Applications to Support Type 1 Diabetes Education

The growth in Internet usage has become increasingly important to adolescents who now use it with more frequency to search for health related information. Parallel to this growth, mobile devices have become progressively more flexible and capable of handling an increased range of functionality. They have begun to be viewed as a viable means of improving communication between health practitioners and patients, which could help to alleviate the disease burden by reducing costs through admission reduction and long-term complications in a variety of long-term conditions. This study explores what young people aged between 18 and 21 with type 1 diabetes feel about their use of mobile and web-based technology and whether it might enable them to engage in an improved way with the NHS and their own health to enhance health-related quality of life. It is intended to identify from their views and experiences how they currently make use of web and mobile technology in their day-today lives and in relation to their condition and treatment. To then build a small number of prototype mobile phone applications based on ideas collected during qualitative data collection. Four years into the project, this paper disseminates progress to date and provides an innovative example of how patient education can be designed in a way which meets the needs of a particular patient group and values and encourages their input to assist in the creative process-whilst also conforming to clinical guidelines.