Dr. Joshua Caballero, Associate Professor in Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy, was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health this fall to develop a culturally-adapted digital health application for older Hispanics with type 2 diabetes. The app will house type 2 diabetes educational content for patients, which will in turn revitalize how pharmacists provide care.
According to Dr. Caballero, the digital diabetes health app will be engaging, interactive, and offer easy-to-understand educational content in the form of modules. Once the patient completes the modules, clinical pharmacists can review the patient’s responses and provide precision counseling, a personalized approach to disease management and patient education that considers social circumstances, environmental stressors, treatment side effects, and lifestyle aspects that may impact the patient’s adherence and health outcomes. The twofold goal is to equip older Hispanic patients with the tools to effectively track and manage their diabetes while assisting clinical pharmacists in providing unique and efficacious care for these patients.
“What we hope to accomplish from receiving this grant is not only to modernize and refine educational content for type 2 diabetes but to develop a user-friendly digital health app to store the content,” said Dr. Caballero. After development, the app will undergo a series of usability and acceptability tests through patients and ambulatory care clinical pharmacists. Once that has been evaluated, the final step in the process will be to pilot test the digital health app to assess health outcomes. The app is expected to officially launch in fall 2027.
Other College of Pharmacy faculty members who will collaborate on this project include Dr. Russ Palmer, Director of Instructional Innovation and Research; Dr. Michelle McElhannon, Public Service Assistant in Experience Programs; and Dr. Henry Young, Head of the Department of Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy. Also, Athens Neighborhood Health Center’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stalina Gowdie and Carlos Lacasa, the CEO of MKL App Design and Development, are partnering with the group to help with patient-centered content and the development of the application. Dr. Caballero added, “I am excited to work with my colleagues on this project and feel fortunate we have the opportunity to reshape and improve the way we care for our patients.”
