An Online System to Improve Diabetes Self-Care

D-STAR (Diabetes-System To Access Records): An Online Patient Portal to Improve and Sustain Diabetes Self-Care

The purpose of this study is to see if an online program for patients with diabetes helps patients improve their self-care (how they take their medications, what they eat, how much they exercise, and whether they smoke).

Patient portals are online programs that can provide a number of functions for patients, among them:

• Ability to request appointments, referrals, and medication refills;
• Ability to send secure electronic messages to medical staff, and to receive replies;
• Access to the medical record;
• Disease management

We are comparing two patient portals with different sets of features to determine if personalized information and guidance can improve self-care and measures of diabetes-related health. Self-care measures will be assessed using standardized questionnaires at baseline, 3, and 6 months. Chart review will be used to assess measures of diabetes-related health.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes mellitus
• Has access to Internet
• Has e-mail address
• Established patient at one of four participating practices at University of Colorado Hospital

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-English speaking