Varied & bespoke caregiver needs: organizing and communicating diabetes care for children in the DIY era

Type 1 diabetes in children is a complex chronic condition. It requires high levels of coordination in order to communicate and organize care for best health outcomes. We examined three types of care, at home, at school, and at the clinic, to explore the communication needs of a range of caregivers. Not only were there differences between types of caregiver, but there were also varied personal preferences for communication, different levels of knowledge regarding caregiving that required different forms of communication, and changes in child health leading to different care needs and communication styles. We frame these findings within the new trend of diabetes technologies that allow for cloud connected communication in order to show the need to respect varied and individual communication practices. Technologies that link current health data over the cloud may not have a one-size-fits-all solution for all caregivers, however, open-source DIY health trends may be a way towards supporting personalized communication needs.