Happier Feet: Diabetic foot ulcer self-management & social support
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Happier Feet: Disrupting the vicious cycle of healthcare decline in diabetic foot ulceration through active prevention: The future of self-managed care
IRAS ID
313819
Contact name
Andrew Eccles
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Strathclyde
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 9 days
Research summary
The study addresses a consistently problematic issue in personalised health care technologies over the past two decades; that is, uneven user adoption and weak longer term use. The problems are multiple, complex and often interacting, but three elements stand out:
(a) the disconnect between the assumptions of efficacy among technologists and the actual 'lived experience’ of users using the technologies;
(b) the lack of different technologies to be able to connect and ‘talk’ to each other;
(c) over-ambitious assumptions about users’ capacity to ‘self manage’ their conditions.
These issues are well documented in the evaluations of technology use which, in the nature of the process, reflect on usage after the technologies have been rolled out. The social science research points to discourses around health care technologies which marginalise user experiences and to a failure to put user voice at the centre of design. A further – and still under-researched – area is the role of health and care practitioners and informal carers in the management of these technologies; they too are ‘end-users’ in that they may be required to interpret data and make decisions accordingly. Thus, the reality of ‘self-management’ can be readily misunderstood. This study addresses these issues by obtaining the perspectives of individuals who would be the intended direct users of mHealth technology for the prevention and treatment of diabetic foot ulcers regarding self-management and mHealth interventions.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/EE/0112
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jun 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion