Development and Primary Evaluation of a Smartphone Application for Blood Glucose Control in Hospitalized Patients

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Diabetes and hyperglycemia are leading causes for cardiovascular diseases, chronic infections, and other serious problems. The use of smartphone is dramatically increasing, and as such, it is sensible to use an application for management of hospitalized patients with diabetes or hyperglycemia. We designed a software for physicians by use of which they educate to take appropriate decisions in management of patients with diabetes and evaluated the quality of the application using a questionnaire. Materials and Methods: Application is designed in a cascade framework to help in management of patients with diabetes and hyperglycemia. The treatment protocols presented in the program were extracted from diabetes management guidelines and valid review articles. Furthermore, we developed a questionnaire to assess the quality of the program. Physicians (n = 36) used this program for 1 week after which they completed the questionnaire. Results: The physicians described the application to be useful and understandable. Conclusion: A high percentage of physicians and health providers are aware of the problems when it comes to hospitalized patients with diabetes and our application was designed to resolve the associated difficulties.