For all of the negative attention that technology sometimes gets — especially when it comes to teens — it was nice to come across this news article a few weeks ago.

A researcher running a small pilot study at the Columbus, Ohio Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that treatment adherence rates shot up amongst teen diabetic patients after they received personalized text message reminders on their cell phones. Which really is not all that surprising, since previous research has demonstrated similar increases in adherence to treatment with text messaging. But a demonstration of the power and utility of our interconnected world — how things like cell phones and iPhones can be used for good too.

Jennifer Dyer, MD, MPH conducted the study, but the way it was conducted suggests we still have a long way to go before this could become commonplace.

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