Multicenter-study to evaluate the usability of GetFIT-messaging-service to support Physician and Patient during basal insulin adjustment

By the time of completing this report, only 4 structured testing (ST) patients and 2 patients requiring basal insulin titration (BIT) had been included in the study. General Findings: Workflows in practices were more different than anticipated: the diabetes consultants are the ones mainly working with the patients. •Very limited time per patient: maybe an issue when patients need to be introduced to the service since new technology still needs some “convincing”. •Mobile phone affinity may not be as common in target audience as anticipated: this will most likely change over the course of the next years. Technical affinity is a key requirement for HCPs to recommend the service to their patients. •Trust and personal assessment and connection between patient and HCP (diabetes consultant) is a key factor especially in BIT process. •BIT patients still seems to require even more “personal care” of HCP: they want to be in touch personally (phone, Email, in-person) to check in with patients to ensure that the “scary” new injection procedure goes well. The service felt like an extra burden to some. •Concerns of HCPs and patients need to be addressed in info material. •Separate info material for patients requiring ST or BIT to reduce information overload. •HCPs need to be open to new technology themselves in order to place the service. •Current procedures with paper tables and diaries seem to work well for HCPs: little need for replacement procedure on HCP side. •Advantages of service seems more obvious for ST patients: Hesitation to use are lower here as well. SMS service for patients •Finding the SMS was an issue for some: since most use WhatsApp but not SMS anymore some had issues even locating where SMS can be found on device. •Welcome message was perceived as long: Briefer SMS welcome message. Place instruction to respond at start of the message. •Very positive feedback and ratings (pre-and post usage) for service and SMS. •No one contacted the help hotline and only two the HCP (network in remote area and changing study start). •Trust in the service was high before and after using it. This maybe biased since only patients who were convinced used the service. •Very good feedback about SMS format, text and readability. •Participants are unsure what to do when they missed a measurement. •Time change is an important feature but seemed to be tricky for some. It was unclear which format to use and the combination of free text entry vs. the letters from menu was not clear to all. •Anticipate any issues and concerns in information material (bad network coverage, changing/losing device etc.) •Consider allowing just time entry by sending a new time (e. g. 14:00) without previously entering “D”. •Provide feedback and context sensitive tips, if user enters incorrect or unknown format (e. g. “Ä” instead of “A”; adding units or U when sending injection dosage) or unknown text (Amazon echo) or if user continues to send BG and injected dosage values after the service ended. Impact of service •Behavioral change: sample size was too small to make a valid statement here. Generally patients already seemed very compliant already. •Service was generally helpful to remind patients to measureand the data showed they measured regularly and when asked. •The service was not perceived as annoying or disturbing in everyday life. If time changes will be easier to make this will improve the experience even more.