A $9,000 award from MSU and Sparrow’s Center for Innovation and Research will allow awardee Bree Holtz to gather baseline research on adolescents with Type-1 diabetes (T1D). Holtz, PhD, Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Department of Media and Information, hopes to use the data provided to win a grant to build an app meant to help teens manage their diabetes.
“There comes a time,” says Holtz, “When parents have to allow teens to start managing their own health,” says Holtz. The app will, hopefully, make that transition easier on both the parent and the teen. While teens often don’t want to acknowledge their health issues, or answer to their parents, the app will allow them to quickly and privately track their insulin levels and report the numbers. “We are hoping to reduce conflict and promote management skills,” says Holtz. It will also connect them with other teens living with diabetes.
If awarded the grant, the building of the app will be handled by students, giving them valuable skills they will need to land jobs in the future.
The focus groups being studied will be adolescents with T1D, parents of those adolescents and pediatric diabetes nurses. The information gathered will hopefully the show the areas where the app will be able to help.
Source: Bree Holtz, MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences
?Author: Allison Monroe, Innovation News Editor
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