Healthy lottery. An economically viable mobile system to increase compliance of individuals with diabetes

Abstract

This article shows the preliminary results of an ongoing study to develop an economically sustainable system, which financially rewards individuals with diabetes. Previous studies have already shown that monetary incentives appear to be the strongest motivator for older individuals with type II diabetes. Nonetheless, design criteria for a mobile service are not well established and there is no study available to assess the viability of a system that rewards individuals for self-management. Therefore, in this paper we explore a design theory, which describes a new mobile service that integrates data from other smartphone applications to assess therapeutic compliance. Our software includes a self-supported lottery in a business model, which allows patients with effective self-management to be rewarded without any deficit. Our prototype is based on a social business model, which aims at improving patients' health and that can be described as”healthy” for them.