The continuing epidemics of diabetes and obesity create much need for information technologies that can help individuals engage in proactive health management. Yet many of these technologies focus on such pragmatic issues as collecting and presenting health information and modifying individuals' behavior. At the same time, researchers in clinical community argue that individuals' perception of their identity has dramatic consequences for their health behaviors. In this paper we discuss results of a deployment study of a mobile health monitoring application. We show how individuals with considerable diabetes experience found a unique way to adopt this health-monitoring application to construct and negotiate their identities as persons with a chronic disease. We argue that viewing health management from identity construction perspective opens new opportunities for research and design in technologies for health.

In the recent years, the number of individuals engaged in self-care of chronic diseases has grown exponentially. Advances in computing technologies help individuals with chronic diseases collect unprecedented volumes of health-related data. However, engaging in reflective analysis of the collected data may be challenging for the untrained individuals. We present MAHI, a health monitoring application that assists newly diagnosed individuals with diabetes in acquiring and developing reflective thinking skills through social interaction with diabetes educators. The deployment study with twenty five newly diagnosed individuals with diabetes demonstrated that MAHI significantly contributed to individuals' achievement of their diabetes management goals (changing diet). More importantly, MAHI inspired individuals to adopt Internal Locus of Control, which often leads to persistent engagement in self-care and positive health outcomes.