Patient-Driven Diabetes Care of the Future in the Technology Era

The growing burden of diabetes is fueled by obesity-inducing lifestyle behaviors including high-calorie diets and lack of physical activity. Challenges in access to diabetes specialists and educators, low adherence to medications, and inadequate motivational support for proper disease self-management contribute to poor glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Simultaneously, high patient volumes and low reimbursement rates limit physicians' time spent on lifestyle behavior counseling. These barriers to efficient diabetes care lead to high rates of diabetes-related complications, driving healthcare costs up and reducing the quality of patients' lives. Considering recent advancements in healthcare delivery technologies such as smartphone applications, telemedicine, m-health, device connectivity, machine-learning technology, and artificial intelligence, there is significant opportunity to achieve better efficiency in diabetes care and increase patient involvement in diabetes self-management, which ultimately may put an end to soaring diabetes-related healthcare expenditures. This review explores the patient-driven diabetes care of the future in the technology era.