Technology failure analysis: understanding why a diabetes management tool developed for a Personal Digital Assistant...

Managing Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus is a challenging feat especially for young patients. It is a tedious and demanding disease which requires painful self-monitoring and injections multiple times per day. Many patients are unable to achieve good blood sugar control, in spite of strong evidence that good control leads to better outcomes. Many caregivers believe that more communication between caregivers and patients could lead to better control. This paper describes a tool that was developed to improve communication between caregivers and patients, its testing, how it failed to achieve its outcomes and recommendations for improvement.