A Smart Consumer-empowered Diabetes Education System (SCEDES): Integrating Human Wellbeing and Health Care in the Community Environment

Uncontrolled diabetes creates an increasing burden on individuals, their families, and the society in the United States. The expected total annual costs of diabetes, including both direct costs and the lost productivity, are expected to be 20% of the Gross Domestic Products by 2016. In this paper, a community-based infrastructure is proposed to provide consumers, both diabetics and pre-diabetics, with a Smart Consumer-empowered Diabetes Education System (SCEDES) that will not only build consumer self-efficacy but also promote their self-management, selflearning, and support from peers and health care professionals. The system architecture and key implementation features are addressed. Challenging issues and research directions are also discussed for further investigation.