Poster Presentation Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2024

Patient satisfaction with the use of a remote glucose monitoring system and an interactive platform in the management of gestational diabetes mellitus, an observational study (Preliminary results) (#34)

Lik Hui (William) Lau 1 , Jacqueline A Boyle 2 , Ella Zomer 3 , Christopher Gilfillan 1
  1. Department of Endocrinology, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. Health Systems and Equity, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Background/Introduction:

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a common metabolic complication in pregnancy and currently affects an estimated 18% of pregnancies in Australia and this is expected to rise. In recent years, mobile health (mHealth) technology has emerged as a promising tool to enhance the management of GDM. mHealth may offer benefits including real-time feedback of glucose data, the ability to monitor glucose readings remotely, increased patient engagement and empowerment, reduction in healthcare resource utilisation and healthcare costs and improved glycaemic control whilst maintaining high levels of patient satisfaction.

Aims:

To determine patient satisfaction in women using the NET-Health smartphone-based application for the management of GDM.


Methods:

The NET-Health application allows automatic, real-time glucose upload to a central server enabling remote glucose monitoring via software that generates alerts for the clinical team with abnormal glucose readings. NET-Health also contains a bidirectional interactive messaging platform. This system was implemented at Eastern Health, a level 5 maternity service since November 2022 as a novel model of care for GDM.

In this observational study, women diagnosed with GDM from the 1st June 2023 were consecutively consented to participate in a survey containing a validated questionnaire assessing general satisfaction with diabetes care, acceptability and reliability of a mobile health technology and the perceived relationship with the diabetes care team, the Oxford Maternity Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (OMDTSQ). This survey was delivered via email to consenting participants from 34 weeks gestation and a reminder sent via repeat email and a short messaging system (SMS) 2 weeks later.

Results:

Out of 442 pregnant women who used NET-Health and have completed their pregnancy, 118 responded to the survey. Non-respondents had similar baseline demographics but were more likely to be parous (median parity = 1). Over 25% of respondents spoke a primary language other than English compared to an estimated 9% in non-respondents. Approximately 85% agreed that their care was satisfactory and was the best for them, 82% reported a good relationship with their care team, 84% found NET-Health reliable, 90% found it convenient, and 71% agreed it fit their lifestyle. Additionally, 84% enjoyed using NET-Health, and 85% found it easy or very easy to use. Additional written comments supported these positive sentiments.

Conclusion:

The use of remote glucose monitoring and an interactive platform was associated with high levels of patient satisfaction across a diverse population. Further studies will elucidate the clinical and economic impacts of this technology.