Smartphones have been one of the success stories of the last decade. Recently apps have been used to promote, manage, and provide medical and healthcare education. Since smartphones are used to support healthcare and public health interventions, they can also provide a useful and easy method for collecting data for healthcare research. In addition, smartphone apps have been successfully used to support telemedicine and remote healthcare in developing nations. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and analyze costs before and after the inclusion of type 2 diabetic patients in a smartphone app healthcare program.

The smartphone app healthcare program is available for Android and IOS systems, and is used to manage behavior changes and to improve patient adherence to pharmacotherapy. Patient follow up is done through a specialized telephone monitoring center made up of a physician, nurses, nutritionists, and psychologists who provide constant monitoring and guidance to patients. A retrospective study was conducted of twenty-nine patients before (year 2016) and 12 months after they were included in the smartphone app healthcare program. Data on physician visits, hospitalizations, and medical and laboratory exams were collected from medical records. The cost analysis was conducted from the private healthcare group perspective and was performed using the micro-costing method.

Ninety-eight percent of patients had reduction or maintenance of glycosylated hemoglobin levels, reaching the therapeutic goal (glycosylated hemoglobin of less than 7%). The cost analysis showed a twenty-five percent total cost saving due to a twenty-three percent reduction in the number of physician visits, a thirty-three percent decrease in hospitalizations, and a thirty-five percent cutback in medical and laboratory exams.

The smartphone app healthcare program can facilitate and improve diabetes care, especially with respect to controlling and managing the use of health resources.