The advantages of mobile solutions for chronic disease management

In an environment of escalating healthcare costs, chronic disease management is particularly challenging, since, by definition such diseases have no foreseeable cure and if poorly managed typically lead to further, complicated secondary health issues, which ultimately only serve to exacerbate cost. Diabetes is one of the leading chronic diseases and its prevalence continues to rise exponentially. Thus it behooves all to focus on solutions that can result in superior management of this disease. Hence, the following presents findings from a longitudinal exploratory case study that examined the application of a pervasive technology solution; a mobile phone, to provide superior diabetes self-care. The conclusions highlight the benefits of a pervasive technology solution for supporting superior self-care in the context of chronic disease. Moreover, it is proffered that by employing the theories of Actor Network and Social Network Analysis the full benefits of this technology enabled solution can be identified.