A dynamic personal medical record improvement: Pilot study for diabetes self-management in Serbia

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the potential for improving the control of patient’s health status, by giving them a specific role in the management of their condition. In particular, we study the aspect of patient cooperation in facilitating the self-control of their health status, by combining relevant medical data with environment data, using telecom and IT services. The main question is related to patients’ willingness to keep an updated personal medical record, making it dynamic, and to share the record with other health care institutions and their staff in case of travelling. The hypothesis is that regular feedback to the patient from the dynamic medical record would improve the life style, diet and correct doses of medicines for controlling the health condition. The study was conducted on 62 randomly selected individuals with diabetes, from the medical practice database in Belgrade, Serbia. The results showed that 56% of participants preferred SMS as a mean of communication, followed by phone calls (18%), and email (16%). Also, the study showed that 68% of participants were willing to allow access to their medical record, whilst the rest of participants were worried about data protection issues. The results of this study showed current poor control of patient condition, regardless of the fact that regular advice was given by the family doctor on a three months basis.