App, doctor pep talks lower diabetes patients’ blood sugar

By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Dr. Guillaume Charpentier believes a smartphone app he is testing on people with diabetes in France works best when it alerts doctors that frustrated patients need help managing their disease. The Diabeo mobile phone program, which recommends insulin dosages, helped people with type 1 diabetes lower their blood-sugar levels in a six-month study. Now a new analysis of the data shows the app markedly improved glucose levels among patients who used it relatively infrequently, raising red flags for their healthcare providers who then intervened. “What the electronic system is not able to do is the magic of the doctor – to give motivational support to the patient, to encourage the patient to do what the patient does not want to do,” Charpentier told Reuters Health.