JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Effective management of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) requires monitoring clinical parameters like blood glucose and medication, alongside lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity. Decision support tools, including dashboards and shared decision-making tools, help with medication adjustments, glucose monitoring, and lifestyle. However, these current systems rarely integrate home-monitored lifestyle data with personalized guidance and rarely facilitate collaborative goal-setting for behavior change. As a result, healthcare professionals are limited in their ability to support patients’ medical and lifestyle management. Blended care, a combination of standard in-person consultations and digital monitoring of patient data, can help bridge this gap by providing structured information and data-driven insights to support diabetes management.

Objective:

To identify healthcare professionals’ requirements for a diabetes patient remote monitoring dashboard that integrates clinical and home-monitored lifestyle data, to support personalized, patient-centered care and collaborative goal-setting in blended type 2 diabetes management.

Methods:

A qualitative study was conducted using two interactive focus group sessions with healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of T2DM. Focus group participants shared experiences, identified practical needs and collaboratively defined requirements for a dashboard to support personalized diabetes management. Transcripts were coded to identify recurring themes and ideas, which were then consolidated into distinct requirements. Requirements were labeled with an identification code (ID) and categorized in accordance with the FICS framework, distinguishing four types of design requirements: Functional (F), Interaction and usability (I), Content and structure (C), and Style and aesthetics (S). Prioritization of requirements was performed using the MoSCoW method.

Results:

Nine healthcare professionals participated in two focus groups, each lasting approximately 1.5 hours. A total of 50 requirements for a T2DM dashboard were identified. Of these, 31 (62%) were Functional (F), nine (18%) related to Interaction and usability (I), seven (14%) concerned Content and structure (C), and three (6%) pertained to Style and aesthetics (S). The participants expressed the need for a dashboard that incorporates data-driven lifestyle (e.g. physical activity and nutrition) with visual trend analysis and integration of psychosocial aspects. They also emphasized the importance of visualizing how nutrition, physical activity and medication interact to influence glucose values. In addition, participants expressed the wish for a home screen that provides a quick overview, with the option to click through to more detailed views (e.g., per day, week, or month).

Conclusions:

The findings demonstrate a demand among healthcare professionals for an integrated dashboard that combines clinical, lifestyle data, and psychological data to support personalized, patient-centered care. By linking lifestyle behaviors with glucose outcomes, such tool could support collaborative goal setting, strengthen blended care pathways and promote data-driven diabetes management. The findings provide practical guidance for the design of digital health interventions tailored to the needs of healthcare professionals.