An ICT-Based Diabetes Management System Tested for Health Care Delivery in the African Context

Abstract

The demand for new healthcare services is growing rapidly. Improving accessibility of the African population to diabetes care seems to be a big challenge in most countries where the number of care centers and medical staff is reduced. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have great potential to address some of these challenges faced by several countries in providing accessible, cost-effective, and high-quality health care services. This paper presents the Mobil Diab system which is a telemedical approach proposed for the management of long-term diseases. The system applies modern mobile and web technologies which overcome geographical barriers, and increase access to health care services. The idea of the system is to involve patients in the therapy process and motivate them for an active participation. For validation of the system in African context, a trial was conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 40 Subjects with diabetes divided randomly into control and intervention groups were included in the test. Results show that Mobil Diab is suitable for African countries and presents a number of benefits for the population and public health care system. It improves clinical management and delivery of diabetes care services by enhancing access, quality, motivation, reassurance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

Do Mobile Phone Applications Improve Glycemic Control (HbA1c) in the Self-management of Diabetes? A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and GRADE of 14 Randomized Trials

“…These results exhibited consistent findings with no heterogeneity. One study reported a reduction larger than clinically anticipated, which raised debate over the legitimacy of their findings (26). After excluding the subgroup of studies that were assessed as poor quality, we found a mean reduction of 0.41% (95% CI 0.22, 0.61; P , 0.001; I 2 = 0%) (Fig.…”

“…In the type 2 diabetes studies, the mean age of the participants was much higher, ranging from 51 (17) to 62 years old (18), and the mean duration of diabetes ranged from 5 (19) to 13 years (20) from six studies. Four studies were undertaken in Europe (18,(20)(21)(22), three in the U.S. (17,23,24), two in Asia (19,25), and one in Africa (26).…”

“…Four sensitivity analyses were undertaken to test the robustness of the results. Removing three studies (20,23,26) with poor quality reported a mean reduction of 0.41% (95% Cl 0.22, 0.61) (Fig. 3).…”

SMS-based intervention in type 2 diabetes: clinical trial in Senegal

“…The single study from Africa8 included only 40 people with type 2 diabetes and showed an unexpectedly large 1.7% reduction in HbA1c in the intervention group. However, because of several flawed methodological aspects, this African study was considered to be of poor quality, providing unreliable data, in the meta-analysis 6…”

A technological framework based on automatic messaging for improving adherence of diabetic patients

“…It enables diabetes patients to manage their own lifestyle data around the clock using their mobile devices (Android, iPhone, and iPads) and/or web-based applications. The platform also enables medical care personnel to access patients' data through a protected web portal (Takenga et al 2014). Another multidisciplinary project was proposed to promote and motivate healthy lifestyles using assistive technology.…”