Co-designing a digital solution to help people manage their diabetes

According to Diabetes UK, 3.6 million people in the UK are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. A further 13.6 million are at increased risk of developing the disease.

At the same time, it is becoming harder for patients to get the support they need to manage their condition. Digital solutions available on demand could go some way to making diabetes care and support more accessible.

ROMI (relational online motivational intervention) is a digital solution called a ‘virtual NHS team member’. Patients with type 2 diabetes can talk to or text ROMI about their condition, using their phone, tablet or computer. ROMI then sends personalised advice to the patient. This can be delivered verbally, as a text or as a graphic.

What did we do?

We held two series of public involvement workshops with three community groups of adults with T2D:

• Men of Sudanese origin,
• South Asian origin women
• Older adults from a retirement home

Attendees were asked to consider and discuss different aspects of ROMI in small groups and give feedback on the session. We used psychological theory and frameworks to structure and understand the feedback from the first series of workshops. The findings were used to co-design the ROMI prototype which was then taken back to the communities in the second series.

We considered feedback from the PPI workshops using a psychological framework to identify what behaviours ROMI needed to target. Our review of research identified which techniques may be most effective to aid behaviour change.

We produced a prototype for people with T2D to talk to in English, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi.

Our findings have been shared with the communities involved in the workshops, BRC academics, and during broader presentations.

We plan to continue this work through a 30-month project to build and test the ROMI prototype through usability and feasibility studies.

The team

The PPI team was led by Professor Andy Gibson of the University of the West of England, a recognised national leader in the development of PPI methods.

Dr Michelle Griffiths mapped the workshops into the COM-B behaviour change framework.

Dr Duane Mellor is a double award-winning registered dietitian and science communicator. They are the Aston University Medical School lead for Nutrition and Evidence Based Medicine.

ROMI was built by Elzware Ltd who have 20 plus years’ experience in building such systems. Rik Lander, on the Elzware team, is an expert in creating participatory media.