Telemedicine reduces hospital visits 50% in type-1 diabetes patients

By Biocat

Telematic systems used to control treatment of chronic patients with type 1 diabetes cut the economic impact of hospital visits in half. This is the conclusion drawn from a pioneering study in Spain, entitled Telemed-Diabetes, carried out by the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders (Ciberdem) and coordinated by Dr. Enric Esmatjes, researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Investigation August Pi i Sunyer (Idibaps) and head of the Diabetes Unit at Hospital Clínic Barcelona.

To select the patients that have participated in this study, from five different hospital centers, researchers took into account Internet access at home and age, from 18 to 55 years old. “It is a sample group that is badly controlled, that uses a large amount of resources in hospital visits, thus making it important to find new strategies to achieve the same results without collapsing the system with on-site visits,” explains Dr. Esmatjes.

Using telemedicine has changed the therapeutic guidelines, “where we can help patients by modifying insulin dosage and managing diet and lifestyle,” says Esmatjes. After the study, improvements have been seen in patient knowledge, adherence to therapy and quality of life.

These results could be extrapolated to other chronic illnesses and patients with type 2 diabetes, although the focus would have to be on education and lifestyle changes.
The challenge now is to make the platforms quick and easy to use “in order to later integrate them into routine patient care, which requires a change in mentality on behalf of both professionals and the administration in terms of quantifying resources assigned to this,” concludes Esmatjes.