WellDoc -- Care coaching app for Diabetes

This article reports on a study published in the journal Diabetes Care by BCBS of Maryland, medical manufacturer LifeScan, and Sprint, on their WellDoc app which is used to support patients with Diabetes.

 “The researchers tracked 163 patients with type 2 diabetes at 26 primary care practices across Maryland over a one-year period. All were covered by commercial insurance. Patients were divided into four groups: a control group with traditional, office-based care; a group given WellDoc coaching and a secure Web portal so they could communicate with their physicians; a group with the WellDoc system whose doctors could see patient self-entered data; and a group whose physicians had clinical decision support that linked data to standards of care and evidence-based care guidelines. “
….
“Patients could communicate by phone or secure portal with diabetes educators acting as "virtual case managers," though they were encouraged to choose electronic messaging. Patients received an "action plan" through the portal every 2.5 months that helped with self-management and served as clinical summaries prior to doctor visits.
The researchers found that the group whose doctors had access to clinical decision support saw their A1c levels decline by 1.9 percentage points, while patients in the control group had a median reduction of just 0.7 points. The control group saw improvements simply from having proper education, according to the study. The Maryland team cited earlier studies showing that merely 55% of people with type 2 diabetes received diabetes education and that only 16% followed recommended self-management regimens.”

Although the study concludes that further research is needed to test for the usefulness of this app, the greater decline in A1c levels points to the effectiveness of combing traditional patient care with app-driven care.