Diabetes Self-management:
You & Type 2

Optimising care-planning appointments and increasing engagement with a Type 2 diabetes support service

As part of an NHS England-funded Test Bed programme, The South West London Health & Care Partnership are creating a blueprint for the future care of people living with long-term conditions. They are starting with a service that makes it easier for people with Type 2 diabetes to manage their condition.

The service, called You & Type 2, builds on the proven principles of the Year of Care by engaging the patient more actively in the creation of their care plan and agreeing the focus and support they need to achieve what matters most to them.

Key to the patient’s effective self-management is their care-planning consultation with a healthcare professional. There’s a lot of information to process in a care-planning appointment, and the You & Type 2 service wanted a way to prepare patients for this consultation and reinforce what was discussed at the consultations afterwards.

Key goals

  • Help patients prepare for their care planning appointments
  • Simplify test results and explain what they mean
  • Connect people to local services
  • Motivate people to self-manage their condition
  • Reinforce the connection between patients and their GP practice

Outcomes at a glance

  • 43% of people clicked through to watch the video
  • 74% watched them through to the end
  • Very positive reaction from both patients and clinicians to the use of personalised health videos

Watch video

How it worked

We identified a series of opportunities for personalising the videos that would support the project’s goals. Data to be included was:

  • Name
  • GP practice
  • Appointment dates
  • Personal health goals and motivations
  • Location-specific content
  • Test results 

The patient receives an initial personalised video with the test results from their annual review. The video explains the significance of the tests and highlights the patient’s results using a simple traffic light system.

The video then encourages the patient to think about what matters most to them in terms of their overall health and wellbeing, and what they would like to achieve with the help of their primary care team over the coming year. 

Following the care-planning consultation, a second personalised health video is sent to the patient, reinforcing the key messages from the consultation, reminding them of their health and wellbeing goals and connecting them directly to relevant tools and local services appropriate to their goals.

The results

The Test Bed is now live in 35 GP practices across South London. The health economics and outcomes are being independently evaluated and a report is due in early 2022.

The preliminary results of this have been positive. Engagement has been high, with 43% of recipients clicking through to watch the video. (The industry standard is just 19%.) 

Of those who watched the video, 75% watched it through to the end.

“Clinicians really appreciate that it takes away a lot of the burden knowing that the information a patient needs is getting across to them in a succinct and special way. We’ve recruited a lot of practices and clinicians to the You & Type 2 service just through the power of Personalised Video”.

Chris Gumble

Project Lead, You & Type 2, NHS South West London CCG

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Working with us

Citizen Communications are pioneers in personalised health video communication. We’re specialists in communicating health information in a way that creates emotional connection, promotes action and encourages lifestyle changes.

We’ll work with you to develop and integrate personalised video to support your populations, enabling you to shift to digital communications without losing the human touch.