Understanding the advantages of mobile solutions for chronic disease management: the role of ANT as a rich theoretical lens.

Abstract

In an environment of escalating healthcare costs, chronic disease management is particularly challenging, since, by definition such diseases have no foreseeable cure and if poorly managed typically lead to further, complicated secondary health issues, which ultimately only serve to exacerbate cost. Diabetes is one of the leading chronic diseases and its prevalence continues to rise exponentially. Thus it behooves all to focus on solutions that can result in superior management of this disease. Hence, this article presents findings from a longitudinal exploratory case study that examined the application of a pervasive technology solution; a mobile phone, to provide superior diabetes self-care. Notably, the benefits of a pervasive technology solution for supporting superior self-care in the context of chronic disease are made especially apparent when viewed through the rich lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and thus the paper underscores the importance of using ANT in such contexts to facilitate a deeper understanding of all potential advantages.