title: Closing the gap: eliminating health care disparities among Latinos with diabetes using health information technology tools and patient navigators.
abstract: Latinos have higher rates of diabetes and diabetes-related complications compared to non-Latinos. Clinical diabetes self-management tools that rely on innovative health information technology (HIT) may not be widely used by Latinos, particularly those that have low literacy or numeracy, low income, and/or limited English proficiency. Prior work has shown that tailored diabetes self-management educational interventions are feasible and effective in improving diabetes knowledge and physiological measures among Latinos, especially those interventions that utilize tailored coaching and navigator programs. In this article, we discuss the role of HIT for diabetes management in Latinos and describe a novel "eNavigator" role that we are developing to increase HIT adoption and thereby reduce health care disparities.
authors.affiliation: Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Disparities Solutions Center, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. llopez1@partners.org
authors.forename: Lenny
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Grant
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000600:supply & distribution; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D008954:Models, Biological; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration