UM-St. Louis Associate Professor Yan Tian, along with colleagues Jeanine Turner, James Robinson, Alan Neustadtl, Pam Angelus, Marie Russell, Seong Mun, and Betty Levine has recently published a study investigating the impact of supportive emails from health care providers on the health of diabetes patients. The article was based on study of a web-based diabetes monitoring system that allowed patients to track their blood sugar levels and communicate with their health care providers. They found that patients who received more emotional support via email seemed to do better in controlling their blood-sugar levels. The study has some interesting implications for the ways in which computer-based health monitoring and communication systems may help patients manage chronic conditions, and for how health care providers can help their patients to do well.
The article, titled, “Can Messages Make a Difference?” appeared in Human Communication Research.
