Perspectives on Diabetes Care
This is the official blog of the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists where we share recent research and professional opinions on diabetes care and education.
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DANA App Review: Making Recommendations to Providers and Patients Easy
Apr 6, 2018, 10:20 AM
By: Vivian Nnacho Ayuk, PharmD, CDE
I’m a pharmacist and Certified Diabetes Educator with Flexcare Pharmacy located in Washington, DC. My pharmacy is accredited by the American Association of Diabetes Educator to provide diabetes self-management training (DSMT). I currently work with physicians in my community and the DC Department of Health to offer personalized and group diabetes education.
Having access to DANA allows me to make recommendations comfortably.
I received an email from AADE promoting the DANA app review and out of curiosity looked it up. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of information offered on the website and the ease of use. I’m constantly exploring the use of technology as a means of improving efficiency and quality of the program we offer to our patients, but trying to keep up with health apps and making recommendations to patients had become very challenging. In addition to questions from patients, I was beginning to get requests for app recommendations from providers as well.
The DANA app review site allowed me to quickly review a wide range of apps by cost, patient safety, data security, benefits to patients, and usefulness in practice. Also, as a pharmacist, I was delighted to see reviews of apps addressing patients’ medication management. The delivery of DSMT as a structured program with frequent in person meetings hasn’t always worked for some of our patients. The use of apps as a tool in behavior change comes up frequently during patient assessment. Having access to DANA allows me to make recommendations comfortably. I know that the information I’m providing has been reviewed by experts, is free of bias, and has undergone extra review by diabetes educators. I can confidently guide my patients as they explore the use of apps as tools to better manage their health condition.
I also like that the site is not limited to diabetes resources, but addresses fitness, lifestyle, and overall wellness as well. It’s a good start and a resource I plan on using more often in the future.