Patient-oriented Computerized Clinical Guidelines for Mobile Decision Support in Gestational Diabetes. (March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: García-Sáez, Gema; Rigla, Mercedes; Martínez-Sarriegui, Iñaki; Shalom, Erez; Peleg, Mor; Broens, Tom; Pons, Belén; Caballero-Ruíz, Estefanía; Gómez, Enrique J.; Hernando, M. Elena
• Is Part Of: Journal of diabetes science and technology. Volume 8:Number 2(2014:Mar.)
• Page Start: 238
• Page End: 246
• Publication Date: 2014-03
• Subjects: clinical guidelines -- decision support system -- gestational diabetes -- m-health -- telemedicine; Diabetes -- Periodicals; Medical technology -- Periodicals; Diabetes Mellitus -- Periodicals; 616.462005
• DOI: 10.1177/1932296814526492
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1932-2968

Abstract

The risks associated with gestational diabetes (GD) can be reduced with an active treatment able to improve glycemic control. Advances in mobile health can provide new patient-centric models for GD to create personalized health care services, increase patient independence and improve patients' self-management capabilities, and potentially improve their treatment compliance. In these models, decision-support functions play an essential role. The telemedicine system MobiGuide provides personalized medical decision support for GD patients that is based on computerized clinical guidelines and adapted to a mobile environment. The patient's access to the system is supported by a smartphone-based application that enhances the efficiency and ease of use of the system. We formalized the GD guideline into a computer-interpretable guideline (CIG). We identified several workflows that provide decision-support functionalities to patients and 4 types of personalized advice to be delivered through a mobile application at home, which is a preliminary step to providing decision-support tools in a telemedicine system: (1) therapy, to help patients to comply with medical prescriptions; (2) monitoring, to help patients to comply with monitoring instructions; (3) clinical assessment, to inform patients about their health conditions; and (4) upcoming events, to deal with patients' personal context or special events. The whole process to specify patient-oriented decision support functionalities ensures that it is based on the knowledge contained in the GD clinical guideline and thus follows evidence-based recommendations but at the same time is patient-oriented, which could enhance clinical outcomes and patients' acceptance of the whole system.