title: Linking community resources in diabetes care: a role for technology?
abstract: Designing and implementing effective lifestyle modification strategies remains one of the great challenges in diabetes care. Historically, programs have focused on individual behavior change with little or no attempt to integrate change within the broader social framework or community context. However, these contextual factors have been shown to be associated with poor diabetes outcomes, particularly in low-income minority populations. Recent evidence suggests that one way to address these disparities is to match patient needs to existing community resources. Not only does this position patients to more quickly adapt behavior in a practical way, but this also refers patients back to their local communities where a support mechanism is in place to sustain healthy behavior. Technology offers a new and promising platform for connecting patients to meaningful resources (also referred to as "assets"). This paper summarizes several noteworthy innovations that use technology as a practical bridge between healthcare and community-based resources that promote diabetes self-care.
authors.affiliation: Section of General Internal Medicine, Chicago Center of Diabetes Translation Research, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC 2007, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA, eliztung@uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Tung
authors.forename: Monica E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Peek
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012944:Social Support