Re-centering diabetes care through community: the iHealthSpace example

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Digital Health
• Chronic Disease Management

Background:

• Modern chronic care models emphasize 'productive interactions' among patients, their community, and care providers.
• Healthcare systems should integrate with community resources for comprehensive patient care.
• Shared medical visits are a model for collaborative care in complex chronic diseases like diabetes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the design considerations for iHealthSpace, a web-based personal health application.
• To enable multi-faceted connectivity and collaborative services for shared medical visits.
• To support the management of diabetes in a large academic practice.

Main Methods:

• Design and development of a web-based personal health application (iHealthSpace).
• Focus on enabling connectivity and collaborative services for shared medical visits.
• Application tailored for patients with diabetes in an academic practice setting.

Main Results:

• iHealthSpace is designed to facilitate 'productive interactions' within the chronic care model.
• The application supports collaborative care by integrating patients, their community, and healthcare teams.
• It provides a platform for managing complex chronic diseases, specifically diabetes, through shared medical visits.

Conclusions:

• Web-based applications like iHealthSpace are crucial for supporting modern chronic care constructs.
• Facilitating connectivity and collaboration enhances patient-centered care and chronic disease management.
• The iHealthSpace model can improve outcomes for patients with diabetes through integrated care approaches.