What adolescents with type I diabetes and their parents want from testing technology: a qualitative study.

The presence of diabetes in an adolescent can significantly affect his/her normal development. Mobile technology may offer the ability to lessen this negative impact. We wished to learn from adolescents with diabetes and their parents how monitoring systems that incorporated mobile communication technology could potentially help to reduce hassles associated with testing, improve compliance, and ease adolescent-parent conflict about testing behavior. We recruited adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years, living with type 1 diabetes mellitus and their parents for focus groups. Qualitative analysis of the focus group data followed a set procedure. From the discussions, the following themes were identified: issues with blood glucose monitoring and desired technology. Elements of desired technology included hardware requirements, software requirements, communication, and miscellaneous requirements. The reported needs of this end-user group can help others to leverage maximally the capabilities of new and existing technology to care for children managing chronic disease.