NYU research: Mobile apps can help diabetes health

New Research from the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business is highlighting the role that mobile health applications can have on outcomes among patients with diabetes. NYU Stern professor Anindya Ghose and co-authors Beibei Li of Carnegie Mellon University and Citong Guo of the Harbin Institute of Technology found that over 15 months, patients who adopted a Chinese mobile health platform saw a more than 2000% reduction in glucose levels over time, on average.

“By assisting patients with behavior modification and disease self-management, mHealth platforms have tremendous potential for improving health outcomes and reducing medical costs,” Ghose said. “With this research, companies have an opportunity to better understand patients’ interaction with mHealth technology and design elements that will be most effective for patient adoption and engagement.”

Patients in the study showed an average 327% reduction in hospital visits and 799% reduction in medical expenses. The study found that patients saw a 20% greater impact from mobile solutions over web-based ones. It also highlighted that a combination of personalized and general SMS messages can impact patient health. The university noting that generalized guidance texts about diabetes care were 18% more effective than personalized ones at reducing glucose levels over time, while personalized messages were found to be more effective at reducing hospital visits and medical costs.