The Case for Jointly Targeting Diabetes and Depression Among Vulnerable Patients Using Digital Technology

Adrian Aguilera; Courtney Rees Lyles

doi:10.2196/diabetes.6916

The Case for Jointly Targeting Diabetes and Depression Among Vulnerable Patients Using Digital Technology

JMIR Diabetes. 2017 Jan 17;2(1):e1. doi: 10.2196/diabetes.6916.

Authors

Adrian Aguilera^{1

2}, Courtney Rees Lyles³

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
² Department of Psychiatry, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
³ Division of General Internal Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.

Abstract

It is well publicized that mobile and digital technologies hold great promise to improve health outcomes among patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes. However, there is growing concern that digital health investments (both from federal research dollars and private venture investments) have not yet resulted in tangible health improvements. We see three major reasons for this limited real-world impact on health outcomes: (1) lack of solutions relevant for patients with multiple comorbidities or conditions, (2) lack of diverse patient populations involved in the design and early testing of products, and (3) inability to leverage existing clinical workflows to improve both patient enrollment and engagement in technology use. We discuss each of these in depth, followed by new research directions to increase effectiveness in this field.

Keywords: chronic illness; depression; diabetes; digital health; vulnerable populations.

Abstract

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