Abstract
Background:
Aggressive management of blood glucose reduces future diabetes-related complications, but this is difficult to achieve.
Methods:
This randomized, controlled study tested the effect of using a wireless two-way pager-based automated messaging system to improve diabetes control through facilitated selfmanagement. The system sent health-related messages to patients, with automatic forwarding of urgent patient responses to the health care team.
Results:
Participants in both the experimental (pager) and the control groups experienced an average hemoglobin A1c decrease of 0.1–0.3%. More patients in the pager group were normotensive, and more felt that their health care was better by the end of the study. A total of 79% of participants enjoyed using the pager, and 68% wanted to continue using the system.
Conclusions:
Utilizing a wireless, automated messaging system in clinical practice is a feasible, low-cost, interactive way to facilitate diabetes self-management, which is acceptable to patients. While providing a convenient way for patients and providers to communicate, this system can support automated recording and ready retrieval of these real-time interactions.
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