| Sumario: | Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires lifelong treatment extending well beyond the primary care office. While in-office visits are an essential component in disease management, ongoing patient support is requisite to impart and strengthen the knowledge, skills, and ability necessary for diabetes self-care. Practice guidelines recommend diabetes self-management education (DSME) and support for all diabetic patients. DSME promotes active participation in disease management through education, behavior modification, and active collaboration with healthcare personnel. A quality improvement project involved interactive, bi-directional textmessaging interventions sent through a secure, messaging system. Text messages included educational information, tips, or reminders related to medication, self-monitoring blood glucose, diet, and exercise. After the intervention, a reduction in participants' mean finger stick blood glucose (FSBG) level occurred. The findings of this project suggest that mobile phone technology is a feasible, and sustainable means to augment current diabetes management with text-messaging interventions that promote DSME.
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