Healthcare industry has been gradually adopting new technologies for better health services. Most notably, telehealth is one such technology that is poised to change the face of diabetes management.
A Quick Overview of Telehealth
According to the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), telehealth is “The use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.”
Simply put, telehealth allows videoconferencing with the expert, transmission of recorded health history, and remote patient monitoring.
How Telehealth Benefits Those with Diabetes?
The key components of telehealth can effectively supplement or replace the usual care for diabetes. These include such as teleeducation, teleconsultation, telemonitoring, and telecase-management. Interestingly, this surprising result comes from a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
In fact, this finding resonates with another study published in the first month of 2017 in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. This study found that telehealth is a cost-effective and superior intervention in the management of common diabetes symptoms.
The reasons for better performance of telehealth in diabetes management are:
- Remote-patient monitoring. A physician who is actually sitting hundreds of miles away from the patient can monitor the symptoms, analyze the patient history, and suggest necessary interventions right away. Videoconferencing is a great tool to accomplish these tasks.
- Fewer hours of consultation. A telehealth meeting lasting just 30 minutes is enough to create or modify a diabetes management strategy.
- Better symptom control through patient self-care. Through a regular education and awareness on diabetes, the patient is able to implement necessary lifestyle changes that improve symptoms.
- Reduced cost. As the need to visit a doctor in person is eliminated, the cost of the care program goes down significantly.
The Bottom Line
While the findings are preliminary, telehealth is a promising new technology in the fight against diabetes. For now, it is clear that telehealth has an opportunity to replace conventional care approaches.
[article1]
[expand title=”References“]
- Scientific Reports. URL Link. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
- Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. URL Link. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
- Diabetes Canada. URL Link. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
[/expand]
