“Bridging the Gap” - diabetes support for all
In 2023 we received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to improve digital health management of type 2 diabetes. By digital health, we mean the use of the internet, the website and online information.
Unfortunately, digital healthcare content has the potential to exclude an ethnically diverse audience if the content has not been designed and tailored for their needs.
The aim of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ project was to explore how to improve the digital offering to South Asian and Black African and Caribbean communities.
The project has been informed by patient and public involvement and stakeholder input through a series of discussion groups. Overall, 18 public members and 15 stakeholders were involved in 14 online meetings and 16 face-to-face and online meetings.
The project looked specifically at:
What the support should look like
How should we engage people in the programme
How do we make sure it works in the real world
The discussion groups provided ideas about what a digital health platform requires to be successful. These include trust in the person delivering the service, which takes time to build, hybrid approach to digital offering, including face to face support for those who do not have the confidence to go on a computer, information in different languages, links to communities, a space to connect, and easy access and registration.
Research lead for the project, Dr Michelle Hadjiconstantinou, said: “This project was a true reflection of co-production, our public contributors and key informants were at the core of this project. One key idea that came out of these discussions was the role of digital champions to support engagement with digital health in ethnic minority groups. We are excited to explore this hybrid approach further and to continue this work to make digital health more inclusive. On behalf of the research team at LDC, we would like to thank everyone who supported and contributed to this project.”
Based on the findings, we have produced a guide to support local communities to tailor their digital support to South Asian and Black Asian and Caribbean communities. Download the guide here. We have also produced an implementation strategy to support healthcare organisations to implement digital health in their localities.
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