TY - JOUR
T1 - A Longitudinal Perspective on User Uptake of an Electronic Personal Health Record for Diabetes, With Respect To Patient Demographics
AU - Conway, Nicholas T.
AU - Bluett, Michael
AU - Shields, Cathy
AU - Taylor, Andrew
AU - Wake, Deborah J.
AU - Cunningham, Scott G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: DW and SC are co-founders and shareholders of MyWay Digital Health ltd, who deploy commercial IT platforms solutions (including a My Diabetes My Way equivalent outside Scotland). MDMW in Scotland is run by the University of Dundee and funded by the Scottish Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Diabetes Technology Society.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Introduction: The growing prevalence of diabetes has increased the need for scalable technologies to improve outcomes. My Diabetes My Way (MDMW) is an electronic personal health record (ePHR) available to all people with diabetes in Scotland since 2010, associated with improved clinical outcomes among users. MDMW pulls data from a national clinician-facing informatics platform and provides self-management and educational information. This study aims to describe MDMW user demographics through time with respect to the national diabetes population, with a view to addressing potential health inequalities.Methods: Aggregate data were obtained retrospectively from the MDMW database and annual Scottish Diabetes Survey (SDS) from 2010 to 2020. Variables included diabetes type, sex, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and glycemic control. Prevalence of MDMW uptake was calculated using corresponding SDS data as denominators. Comparisons between years and demographic sub-groups were made using Chi- Squared tests.Results: Overall uptake of MDMW has steadily increased since implementation. By 2020, of all people with T1D or T2D in Scotland, 13% were fully enrolled to MDMW (39,881/312,326). There was proportionately greater numbers of users in younger, more affluent demographic groups (with a clear social gradient) with better glycemic control. As uptake has increased through time, so too has the observed gaps between different demographic sub-groups.Conclusions: The large number of MDMW users is encouraging, but remains a minority of people with diabetes in Scotland. There is a risk that innovations like MDMW can widen health inequalities and it is incumbent upon healthcare providers to identify strategies to prevent this.
AB - Introduction: The growing prevalence of diabetes has increased the need for scalable technologies to improve outcomes. My Diabetes My Way (MDMW) is an electronic personal health record (ePHR) available to all people with diabetes in Scotland since 2010, associated with improved clinical outcomes among users. MDMW pulls data from a national clinician-facing informatics platform and provides self-management and educational information. This study aims to describe MDMW user demographics through time with respect to the national diabetes population, with a view to addressing potential health inequalities.Methods: Aggregate data were obtained retrospectively from the MDMW database and annual Scottish Diabetes Survey (SDS) from 2010 to 2020. Variables included diabetes type, sex, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and glycemic control. Prevalence of MDMW uptake was calculated using corresponding SDS data as denominators. Comparisons between years and demographic sub-groups were made using Chi- Squared tests.Results: Overall uptake of MDMW has steadily increased since implementation. By 2020, of all people with T1D or T2D in Scotland, 13% were fully enrolled to MDMW (39,881/312,326). There was proportionately greater numbers of users in younger, more affluent demographic groups (with a clear social gradient) with better glycemic control. As uptake has increased through time, so too has the observed gaps between different demographic sub-groups.Conclusions: The large number of MDMW users is encouraging, but remains a minority of people with diabetes in Scotland. There is a risk that innovations like MDMW can widen health inequalities and it is incumbent upon healthcare providers to identify strategies to prevent this.
KW - diabetes mellitus
KW - electronic health records
KW - health records
KW - healthcare disparities
KW - personal
KW - type 1
KW - type 2
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104494551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/19322968211005734
DO - 10.1177/19322968211005734
M3 - Article
C2 - 33870755
SN - 1932-2968
VL - 15
SP - 993
EP - 1004
JO - Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology
JF - Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology
IS - 5
ER -
