Telemedicine has become vital for people who have diabetes. A study has shown that those patients who cannot get a chance to visit their doctors but use telemedicine still benefit and helps to improve blood glucose levels.
After a research was conducted, there was a suggestion for texts and portals to be improvised, expressly meant for patients with diabetes. They can be sent short text messages to motivate them and encourage them never to lose hope. This can bring in better and positive outcomes.
There was a random system review conducted by Marcello Tonelli, MD, SM, and his colleagues from the department of medicine at the University of Calgary, Canada, meant to determine the impact of telemedicine compared to the other health care methods in people who have diabetes.
With telemedicine, communication was done by text messages, images, and voice and by the clinical decision-support system but when it comes to health providers; contact was made only by voice, transmission of data and text messages. The care provider’s method was more efficient as it reduced HbA1c in less than three months.
In general, there were 23 studies conducted, that used instruments to give results on quality life. Some of the tools used included Diabetes Distress Scale, the Problem Areas in Diabetes, Diabetes Quality of life, social functioning, physical functioning, the European Quality of Life Survey with Five Dimensions and Hypoglycemia, which represented the percent of individuals affected.
According to the reports, the study that showed highest improvement was in the Problem Areas in Diabetes score with telehealth with a difference of 2.86 mean within 4-12 months. The worst performed study was in social functioning, physical functioning and European Quality of Life Survey with Five Dimensions.
No proof showed that telemedicine had an impact on hypoglycemia and severe hypoglycemia studies. The systematic review showed that this technology will have a significant impact and will act as a supplement to the usual clinical care control HbA1c. However, the method will be more efficient if more interacting tactics are used on patients such as portals and text messages as it can help them in self-management.