PAMS - A Personalized Automatic Messaging System for User Engagement with a Digital Diabetes Prevention Program

The use of mobile health (mHealth) apps can greatly impact the healthcare field by facilitating delivery of medicine and improving patients' health outcomes. Currently, digital diabetes prevention program (dDPP) apps have been broadly used as “digital prescriptions” for diabetes prevention care, within healthcare delivery systems. dDPP are mhealth apps developed according to the guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which in 2010, developed the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to promote lifestyle behavioral change based on diet, exercise, and weight loss. dDDP has proven to be effective and an excellent alternative to in-person medicine. However, engaging patients with these digital prescriptions remains a challenge, limiting their effectiveness. Thus, we developed PAMS, a personalized automatic messaging system to promote user engagement with a dDPP platform. PAMS is a nudge-based approach system that automatically sends Short Message Service (SMS) messages to patients on their providers' behalf to leverage patient-provider trust and increase engagement to the dDDP. These messages are motivational and personalized according to patients' performance within the dDPP platform. PAMS also facilitates patient-provider conversation about diabetes prevention during in-person visits by integrating into Electronic Health Records (EHR) a provider-facing dashboard displaying a weekly summary of patients' dDPP activity data.