Telehealth and Diabetes Monitoring

October 2008  | Kevin D. Blanchet

Telemedicine and e-Health, Vol. 14, No 8, October 2008

Introduction
The numbers are sobering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 24 million Americans now have diabetes. This represents approximately 8% of the U.S. population. Just in the past 2 years, the number of cases has increased more than three million. Most of these individuals are living with type-2 diabetes, the result of obesity, poor diet, and lack of exercise. Add to these numbers another 57 million people with prediabetes and you have a health crisis in the making. Like other chronic diseases, diabetes offers an opportunity to employ basic and complex applications of telehealth to provide home health monitoring and tight glucose control. In addition to patient management and monitoring, telehealth also focuses on diabetes education, decision support for the clinician, and screening for complications. The applications of telehealth in diabetes represent a broad spectrum of approaches. Basic interventions may include educational websites, nurse call centers, video phones, and telephone case management using clinical practice management protocols. An example of an advanced application is providing patient education, counseling, and nutritional support through the use of videoconferencing. More recently, sophisticated technologies allow for the use of digital glucometers along with Internet-based disease management portals and retinal imaging capabilities. From voice and e-mail to high-resolution images and video, the goal is to take advantage of every technology so that patients with diabetes can control their disease and lead normal lives.

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