Week 1: Dear Journal, I read journals

Week 1 involved becoming familiar with things: Boulder, campus, my area of research.

Boulder is beautiful. I have made it a mission to let everyone see its beauty, thus filling all of my social media outlets with pictures of the mountains.

I am also impressed with the uniformity of this campus. Coming from The University of Alabama, I am very much used to seeing a range of buildings in 1800′s style (now featuring one women’s bathroom!) to a very modern now. All the buildings look the same, which creates a very nice flow on campus. (Though this does make it very easy for my no-sense-of-direction self to get lost)

Allison provided me with several journal papers to ready that were related to our study.

What I have gathered:

I have observed two common themes in the papers I’ve read — willingness and control. One of the most important thing to consider in any health management study, is that software is only going to make a difference for people who want to see a difference. With the UbiFit software, when people set goals to live more healthfully, they were successful because it was something that they truly wanted to change. The people that are not willing to make lifestyle changes will have a harder time seeing positive results. The other important consideration is control. Whether it be pertaining to lifestyle choices (diet, exercise), data (UbiFit Garden), or blood sugar levels, people like to feel like they have a say in the outcome. Visualization is key for people with diabetes to feel like they have a sense of control. This allows them to reflect in choices and what could have led to certain outcomes. When they can actually see what factors affect things such as blood glucose levels, they are able to modify and adjust these levels. This puts them in charge of readings. Similarly, when patients are able to reflect and review data with their health care providers, it’s through feedback that they can make changes.

It is imperative for people with diabetes, and the people around them, to understand the importance of good monitoring practices and habits. It has also been shown that visualizations of data (blood glucose levels, food consumption, exercise) can help with management/maintenance, because it becomes easy to associate action with consequence. Feedback also encourages them to continue using the system.

Putting these things into consideration, our system hopes to improve health monitoring and communication through a glanceable display. Because texting is such a prevalent and easy means of communication, implementing text updates and inquiries show simplify diabetes management. Teens will send texts such as “bg?” to ask when his/her last blood glucose reading was. We hope that the #Heath@You system will be easy to use/interpret, and therefore users will continue using it. We are also interested in finding out what patients/caregivers like to track (e.g. will they mostly inquire about carb amounts in food, Hb levels, when insulin was taken, etc.).