Diabeticlink: An internationally collaborative cyber-enabled patient empowerment platform

Diabetes mellitus is a leading cause of death in both developed and emerging countries, and a chronic disease that requires a substantial amount of financially difficult and time-consuming healthcare provisions. However, patients’ quality of life can be significantly improved with appropriate education and tools for self-management. In order to improve health outcomes among populations largely prone to or already suffering from diabetes, the University of Arizona Artificial Intelligence Lab developed DiabeticLink, a free diabetes selfmanagement patient portal. This system is utilizable on mobile devices and personal computers. It incorporates novel methods for health status monitoring and trend projections, assessment and prediction of risks for major health events, recommendations of educational materials, and social functionalities. It was evaluated in 2014 prior to launching through an IRB-approved usability study. This internationally collaborative system has been launched in Taiwan and the United States (2013 and 2014, respectively), while a Danish version is currently being developed.