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NHS Scotland’s interactive website has potential to improve diabetes care
An electronic personal health record developed by the National Health Service, or NHS, in Scotland has been positively received by adults with diabetes as a tool for enhancing diabetes care, according to findings published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.
The program, which is called My Diabetes My Way, is a website that integrates individual diabetes-related health records from different providers and presents them with visual and textual representation and explanation, education tools and other multimedia resources. It was first developed in 2008 at the University of Dundee in Scotland and has grown to a base of 39,000 registered users in Scotland as of May 2018, according to researchers.
“The system provides a more complete overview of diabetes than would be available from any single data source, such as an isolated primary care or hospital clinic database,” Nicholas Thomas Conway, MBChB, MRCPCH, MPH, MD, a general pediatrician at NHS Tayside in Dundee, and colleagues wrote. “Web-based interventions for those with diabetes have been shown to improve clinical outcomes. ... At a population level, small improvements in glycemic control are associated with considerable long-term savings due to a reduction in diabetes-related complications.”
To assess the usage and utility of the program, Conway and colleagues sent a 35-item questionnaire to 3,797 registered users in May 2015. The questionnaire assessed utility on a Likert scale, with a score of 0 equating to low utility and a score of 1 equating to high utility. The researchers received responses from 1,095 users (mean age, 58 years; 37% women).
The median utility score for the entire cohort was 0.78, with the researchers noting that scores skewed toward the higher end. Diabetes duration was the only significant predictor of utility score, with more recently diagnosed participants more likely to find the program useful (P < .001). Additionally, 82% of respondents indicated that the system “had the potential to significantly improve diabetes self-care.” Visual representation of data was cited as useful by 83% of respondents, and access to full medical records was considered the “best feature” by 49%.
Among the respondents, 44% noted that a difficulty with signing in or accessing information was a negative aspect of their experience, but the researchers noted that these findings have since influenced further development.
“Electronic health applications are often developed in isolation and may not reflect the user requirements of the population that they are designed for,” the researchers wrote. “The questionnaire has identified areas for improvement and has directly informed development of the website. In particular, the registration process has since been simplified, resulting in improved access to the system, the user interface is being improved and a [My Diabetes My Way] app has been developed.” – by Phil Neuffer
Disclosures: Conway reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.